


Fire Work

by ellf



Series: Building Faith [4]
Category: The Dresden Files - All Media Types, The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: F/F, Fourth of July, Magic, Patriotism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-25 23:33:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12543760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellf/pseuds/ellf
Summary: The spirit of American patriotism wants Harry Dresden to find his hat, and Harry takes his new apprentices along for the ride. Happens between What is Known and Fools Rush In.





	1. Chapter One

Summers in Chicago meant a few things. School was out, the days were long, and the festivals were going strong. Last summer it would have meant plenty of time for hanging at the game shop, checking out new video games, going to the movies, going to the park with friends, enjoying a nice summer barbecue with everyone just before the lovely night of the Fourth of July celebration. Of course, for Glenn, Jason and Cecelia now, there’d be no trips to the park, no game shop fun, no summer barbecues. God, that made me so angry… So angry that I could… I just needed to…

“ _Infiernius!”_ I thrust my hand out, focusing my anger and my hate for what had happened to a point, and a small wisp of smoke came from my fingertips, with only the semblance of heat accompanying it. Sweat beaded on my brow as the smoke splattered against the edge of the circle I was in. That had been… God, that had been hard, and all I’d gotten was smoke? I’d done better with Harry’s candle lighting spell, but that hadn’t been meant for any sort of combat.

“Not bad, Grasshopper, for a first try.” Harry swiveled his chair toward me. Even sitting down, he was stupidly tall. Today Harry wore a pair of blue jeans and a Star Wars tee. He’d taken Molly and I into his office with him so he could keep what he called “office hours” and let us practice in an environment he was able to keep under control. Sure, it probably would have been better if we were practicing in Harry’s apartment, but the circles Molly and I were in would keep any energies from escaping in an untoward fashion.

Now Harry’s office is in a building in midtown Chicago. The front door to it has a frosted glass window, on which the words “HARRY DRESDEN, WIZARD” are painted on. The inside is more or less what a typical PI’s office would look like, except Harry has a selection of pamphlets with titles like “Real Witches Don’t Float So Good,” “Magic in the 21st Century,” “Witches and You,” “Want to Do Magic? Ask Me How!” and “Magic and You.” Most of them were probably written by Harry himself, but I knew that one or two were penned by some of his friends. Harry also had his big desk along with the swivel chair he was currently sitting in.

Harry swiveled to face Molly. “Now you, my other Grasshopper. Give it a go. Just focus on the feeling, and ignite the spark.”

I looked to my sister, who, like me, was sitting cross-legged in a circle. She’d cut her hair recently so that the two of us had the same length for our hair again, and today the two of us wore a pair of matching red and white summer dresses. Admittedly, we’d each worn them for different reasons. She wore hers because she wanted a certain man looking her way as he taught her, and I wore mine because of a certain girl who was planning on meeting up with me later. Hopefully both appreciated it.

I watched Molly close her eyes and start chanting under her breath. I couldn’t quite feel what she was doing, given the two circle edges between us, but I could guess. Molly was probably doing what I did, calling up a memory and using the feelings it generated to focus her power. The issue was, while I wasn’t that good at evocation…

“ _Infiernius!_ ” Molly thrust her hand out and… nothing happened. No smoke no anything. I might not have been all that good with evocation, but Molly sucked at it. Of course, we’d only been learning magic for about five months at this point. It wasn’t like we’d had a lot of time to get perfect at everything. Molly leaned forward in her circle, panting, and it was all I could do not to get up and head over to her just then.

“Okay,” Harry said. “That wasn’t bad. I wasn’t really expecting either of you to completely get it the first try anyway.”

I nodded, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Molly doing so as well. Sitting in this solo circle itched a bit. I wanted to be near my sister. “So, what did we do wrong?”

“Oh, there’s probably any number of things you did wrong here, Faith, but ultimately you both committed one grave sin.” Harry held up his left index finger. “Care to take a guess what that was?”

“We didn’t focus enough,” Molly said. “We were trying to push too much energy through too small a distance and we couldn’t focus enough on it.”

“Not quite,” Harry said. “Faith?”

“We focused on the wrong thing. When we did the tracking spell, we were supposed to focus on the connection between the two items, but with this we were focusing on whatever we weren’t supposed to be focusing on.”

“Closer, but still wrong,” Harry said. “What the two of you did wrong, and I made the same mistake once, was you didn’t actually believe that you could do it. Magic comes down to belief most of the time. Believing that you can do it, believing you are right to do so. If you don’t believe that you can do it, you’re cutting yourself off at the knee from the beginning.”

I glanced to my sister, and she locked gazes with me. Even with these circles in the way, I knew she knew what I knew. Lord, these circles were actually starting to hurt, but neither Molly nor I would give before Harry said we could. Harry wasn’t wrong about the belief. Fire was _hard_ to move, and creating fire from nothing took skill that I wasn’t sure either of us would develop.

“Okay, say we do end up believing,” I said. “How do we go about using that belief?”

“That… Well, that’s something that I can’t really show you in the office or the apartment.” Harry looked at me, and I smiled.

“So, don’t want to risk burning the place down, eh?” I asked. “Is that why you had us practicing here?”

“Well, I wanted to see the two of you practicing somewhere that wasn’t my place,” Harry said, glancing at the two of us. I could see Molly was having the same trouble I was; being cut off from her… it hurt. It was… off. We’d been in the circles for close to an hour by this point. “And I didn’t think you’d be able to start anything capable of burning the place down here.”

That was it. I kicked out sharply with my foot, breaking the circle as Molly did the same. Molly and I breathed simultaneous sighs of relief as we looked at Harry. “Well, we’re done for now… at least with being in the circles.”

“Too long?” Harry asked, and we nodded. Molly and I made our way to each other and I wrapped my arm around her back as she did the same with mine. “You lasted nearly an hour this time. I’d call that progress.”

“We’d call it torture,” we said, giving a half-glare at Harry. Sure, we knew that he was only trying to help, but being separate for too long _hurt_ , and we didn’t like that. “We wanted to get out of it sooner, but you had us focusing on the casting of the spell, and the best we could even come up with was a bit of smoke. Fire is _hard_ , Harry.”

“You mean the best Faith could come up with,” Harry said.

“That’s what we said, the best we could come up with.” We paused. Well, that was separate. What if we were to do something together? It always seemed like it was easier to cast spells when we worked together, and we knew we were stronger as one. We looked to Harry. “We might be able to do better.”

“I thought so,” Harry smiled at us. “You two have a decent amount of power, and you seem to focus better when you’re doing… whatever it is you’re doing right now.”

“So, why not have us do this from the beginning?” We cocked our heads slightly, lightly pressing together our hips. We weren’t exactly trying to flirt with Harry, even if part of us desperately wanted to. Harry had a good thirteen years on us. While that wasn’t exactly a long time for an adult, we hadn’t quite turned fifteen yet, and we wouldn’t until the end of the month.

“Because the two of you need to be able to perform magic separately, independent of each other.” Harry gestured with a hand at one of us. “Each of you has different strengths, Grasshoppers. Faith, you seem to be good with your own perception, but Molly is good with dealing with other people’s perceptions. You two can work hand-in-hand, but without working on what you’re good at individually, you won’t be able to bring your best when you work together.”

“We guess that makes sense,” we said, nodding and mulling over Harry’s words. One thing occurred to us there though. “But if we’re supposed to work on what we’re good at, why have us doing fire evocations?”

“Fire’s one of the best elements to use in magic,” Harry said. “It purifies, it destroys, and it can eat through most hostile enchantments with ease. Besides, I’m not training the two of you to merely be focused practitioners. You’re not going to be only good at one thing. I’m training the two of you to be _wizards_.”

“Okay,” we said, and we stood up to go get the chalk. “We’re just about ready to try again, but this time we’re going to try together.”

“All right, Grasshoppers, just remember what I said. Focus on the feeling, shape your power, and ignite the spark you’re using for the flame.” Harry gestured to the candle on his desk. “ _Flickum bicus_.”

The candle ignited easily as magic leapt from his hand to its wick. We’d done something similar when… Cecelia… God. We hoped that her soul was at rest.

“You don’t have us lighting a candle, Harry. You have us imitating your fire lance spell,” we said as we started to draw a circle around us. Wait, there was something else we were supposed to tell Harry. We decided that we should probably do that before we forgot again. “Oh, Harry… Daddy did ask us to mention something to you about Monday.”

“Oh?” Harry raised an eyebrow. “What’s going on Monday?”

“Daddy’s going to be—” We were cut off by a knock on the door of the office, and Harry gestured for us to stop as he stood up to answer. Tentatively, we felt out with our senses as Harry approached the door, dipping into his pocket as he pulled it open. We felt power, neatly hidden behind something, but it was clearly there. We weren’t sure that Harry felt the same, but the person who was knocking clearly wasn’t all they appeared to be.

Of course, given who was on the other side of the door, it was hard to imagine that they were what they appeared to be at all. The human-looking man on the other side of the door stood nearly as tall as Harry, coming only a few inches short of our mentor’s height. He was a wizened man, maybe in his late fifties or early sixties. in a white collared shirt, wearing a blue overcoat and a red bowtie. He had a head of curly white hair that curled off in wisps from his head, and his dark eyes were framed by bushy white brows. He had a very distinctive nose overtop of a pair of masculine yet thick lips, and he had a shortly cut white beard that dipped a bit off his chin. Oh, and he was wearing red and white striped slacks.

“Can I uh, help you, sir?” Harry asked, looking the man over.

“Well that depends,” said the man in an accent that reminded me of a fusion of someone from Brooklyn and someone from the South. “Are you the wizard?”

“Yes I am,” Harry said with a grin. “And these are my apprentices, Faith and Molly. I’m Harry Dresden, how can I help you?”

The man stepped into the office at that. “Oh good. I was hoping It was you, Mister Dresden.”

Harry stepped aside as the man did so and his… well, we could feel the power the man was concealing. We just couldn’t figure out how we could tell Harry about it. Something wasn’t right there, and given that the man was looking for Harry… It looked like Harry was going to be getting dragged into something again. We couldn’t let him go it alone.

“So, who are you then?” we asked.

“Oh, excuse me. Where are my manners today?” The man reached up as if to remove something from his head, only his hand grasped nothing but air. He frowned and then placed his hand over his chest. “One of my names is Samuel. You can call me Uncle Sam.”

“Uncle Sam, huh?” Harry said. “Guess it’s that time of year. What can I do for you, Sam?”

We tensed ourselves as we watched the man. There was no way that Harry wasn’t feeling this power. He had to.

“It is definitely that time of year, Mister Dresden,” said “Uncle” Sam. “I _am_ Uncle Sam, and I want _you_ , Mister Dresden, to find my top hat. Before it’s too late.”

Wait. What?


	2. Chapter Two

Okay. Let’s just pause for a second. The idea of Uncle Sam looking for his top hat was just too ridiculous to imagine, and Molly and I being in a circle in Harry’s office practicing fire evocation when he showed up is just alarming timing. Of course, one could almost say that it was designed that way. Maybe we were meant to be there at that point in time. God does work in mysterious ways, after all, and given that our father is a Knight of the Cross, we tend to think about the Will of God a lot with our family. Of course, the day had started out more or less normal, for the time of year anyway.

Every year around the Fourth of July, St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church organizes a big Independence Day barbecue. There’s usually lots of food, some games, music, sometimes there’s a dunk tank, and of course, the day is capped off with fireworks. Now those are usually done by professionals that are authorized by the city to perform them, since actually setting off your own fireworks in and around the Chicago Metro area is actually illegal. Now, the actual setup of the barbecue is done about two days beforehand, and this year, Daddy had volunteered to help with the organization. Since the barbecue was to be taking place in the rectory and out on the lawn near the church, more volunteers were needed to help with the setup than Daddy alone. Mom and Daddy decided that it would be good for us to help out with the setup, and Molly and I were put in charge of actually getting the outside set up, at least until we had to meet up with Harry Dresden later that day.

We’d actually gotten to the church around eight in the morning for Daily Mass, and afterward, Daddy had directed us toward where we needed to go. Other than Molly and myself, Danny, Mattie, Alicia and Amanda were directed to help out with us. Harry and Hope were too little to do much, so Mom took them inside to help with the indoor decoration, aided by Daddy. The rest of the help was supposed to arrive around ten thirty, but given the fact that the other priests were milling around, Molly and I were told that we needed to do whatever work we were planning on doing entirely by hand. Admittedly, I wasn’t exactly confident that my magic would have been all that helpful anyway (telekinesis takes a _lot_ out of me), but it sucked not even having the option.

“All right,” I said, looking over my assembled siblings, minus Molly who stood beside me. We needed to figure out the best way to get everyone working properly with what needed to be done. I glanced to Molly, and she nodded. Of course we were on the same page. “So, Danny, Mattie, you two have tent duty. I want the two of you taking the stakes here and marking where the tents need to go up. I think Father Forthill has a map of how he wants it done, but if you can get the stakes laid down, when the others get here, we can get the tents put up.”

I felt a sense of annoyance flare up from Danny’s direction as he made a face. I’d been getting those a bit more lately, and I was pretty sure Molly was getting them too. If it kept up, we’d probably have to talk with Harry about it. He might have had some ideas on how to control what we were feeling. Still, Danny didn’t seem to feel annoyed for all that long, but there was a sense of further exasperation coming from his dark-haired head that lingered.

“Got it, sis. And it’s Daniel, Faith. Daniel.” Ah, that’d be the reason. For some reason my little brother wanted to go by his full first name. I couldn’t do that. Big sister duty. In my last life, I hadn’t really had the ability to annoy my younger siblings by shortening their names (the shortened versions of their names just didn’t sound right to my ear), and I took every chance I could in this one. Well, almost every chance.

“Right, Danny,” I said with a grin. No matter how old he got, Danny would always remain Danny to me. “Anything else to add?”

“Can’t either of you do, you know…” Mattie waved his hands and wiggled his fingers, and then he gestured at the stakes. He had no idea how adorable he looked when doing that. I mean, sure, he wasn’t the youngest boy anymore, but he was barely in junior high. It really didn’t help that he’d chosen to try and spike up his dark hair that day. It only made him look cuter. “I mean, you do it at home…”

“Can’t,” Molly said. “Too public, and there’s—”

“—a chance that a priest—”

“—who isn’t Father Forthill will see,” Molly said, finishing the thought with my minor interruption. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “So, listen to Fai. Stakes and tents, boys.”

Danny nodded, and he grabbed our brother’s arm. The two of them picked up the stakes and rubber mallet, and they headed out to start their work. Molly was good at that. She seemed to know how to get our siblings moving easier than I did, but they did listen to the both of us. Most of the time, anyway. I just sometimes had to use the Mom voice.

“What about us?” Alicia asked, adjusting her glasses a little. I hadn’t given her a nickname because I really didn’t like the one Molly’d come up with. Leech just sounded wrong.

“You two,” Molly scratched at her chin as she looked over the things we had assembled before us. “How about you two start looking for places to plant those small flags?”

“Kay!” Amanda said as she dashed forward to grab the flags. As she started to pick them up, she paused and looked at us. “Faith, Molly… is Bill coming here?”

“Well, actually, we’re going to be probably meeting up with him later. He said he wanted us to get some practice in today, and Daddy agreed,” I said.

“But we’ll try to get him to come to the barbecue,” Molly added.

“It would be good to see Mister Dresden again. He left so quickly last time,” Alicia said.

I grimaced. Molly and I knew the reason for that, but I don’t know if Molly knew how close it came to being me rather than Harry. Sure, we hadn’t seen anything in Harry’s actions to indicate that Lasciel was doing anything yet, but I knew that it was just a matter of time before she started influencing him. That said, the shadow was running on Harry’s brain hardware. From what I remembered… Actually, it didn’t matter. Harry was our mentor anyway.

“At any rate,” I said. “We should get to work. Molly and I will move some of the tables into place. The tents should be able to go up around them. Grab your flags, girls.”

Alicia nodded, her dark hair dipping into her face a little. She brushed it out of the way with a hand, and she grabbed one of the bags of flags, and Amanda grabbed the other. While they went off to start placing the flags where they needed to go (I trusted Alicia to make sure Amanda didn’t put them anywhere _too_ silly), Molly and I made our way to where Daddy and Father Nguyen had stacked the tables for use. The tables were the foldable plastic kind, and they were relatively easy to carry, even if we had to wrap our arms around the width of the table to carry it.

For the next hour or so, the six of us did our work in the yard. When Danny and Mattie ran out of stakes to place, they started helping with the tables. We’d held off on actually setting up the tents until we managed to get a little more help, as setting those up would be a bit of a pain.

A little after ten, I made my way around the shed that the tables had been stacked near. I wanted to make sure that there weren’t any other tables to drag out beyond the ones that were left in the pile, and I wanted to see if there were other things we could get out to start working on. After all, more people were supposed to come and help. It was really only a matter o—

A pair of feminine hands slid over my eyes and a breathy voice spoke into my ear. “Guess who…”

A smile came to my face as I brought my hands up to interlock with hers, “How’d you figure it was me over here and not Molly, Becks?”

“I’ve known you two how long at this point?” Becca removed her hands and I spun around to see her. Today she wore a black tee shirt with an elaborate crucifix embroidered on it, and she had a short, dark pleated skirt. In a contrast to how she wore her makeup at school, today she merely had black-painted lips. Her deeply red hair was pulled back into a tight French braid, and it was tied off with the scrunchie I’d given her one day when hers broke. “Come here.”

Becca pulled me into a hug, and she gave me a chaste peck on the cheek, which led into something that was determinably inappropriate for a church setting. Luckily we were well-hidden behind the shed, but as all good things must, it ended, perhaps a bit too soon. I brought my thumb up to Becca’s lips and rubbed out where I smeared her lipstick. She reached into her purse and brought out a handkerchief to wipe down my face. As nice as being with her was, we weren’t exactly in a setting where it’d be good for us to be as close as she and I would both like.

“So, Fai,” Becca said, leading into something. “Do you think that after we’re done here, you and I could get a little time, maybe see a movie?”

“Mmm…” I murmured. “I really do want to, but I’ve already got plans this afternoon for some of that special study that Molly and I are working on. Maybe tomorrow?”

“I suppose,” Becca said, and I felt her disappointment through her skin. I really didn’t want to feel that from her, but it shifted to determination after a second. “So, what more needs to be done?”

“Well, we need to finish up with the tables,” I said.

“And then we need to set up the tents,” said Molly as she walked over. “Good morning, Becca.”

“Morning Molly,” Becca said, smiling. “I came ready and willing to help.”

“Good,” Molly said. “If you two are done hiding out over here, maybe we can get the tents out of the shed.”

“Oh, right…” I slipped out of Becca’s grip, somewhat reluctantly, and I made my way over to my sister. There was a flare of something… a little off, but I couldn’t really tell the source or the emotion. It was a tugging at my heart that distracted me a moment before I could open the shed door.

Molly and I opened the door together, sliding each side open, and out the door ran _something_ carrying something made from red, white and blue fabric. I hadn’t gotten too good a look at it, as it had moved too fast, but I’d seen it.

“Holy…” Becca said. “Did you see the size of that rat? How long has it been since this shed’s been used?”

“Daddy should have had it open yesterday. Hold on a second,” I said, looking around the shed. Our parents had said no magic that the priests would catch us at, which meant no evocation to help us set up the tents, and it normally would have meant no thaumaturgy. However, this time was far from normal. I gathered a small amount of energy and focused it on my eyes. As I did that, I whispered out my incantation. “ _Mirete_.”

So, bit of biology lesson here. The human eye actually sees a lot. It’s a relatively well-designed focus and lens through which we see the world. It literally can capture everything that is put in front of it. But wait, one might say, what about optical illusions? Why do I see things differently than they are? This has less to do with what the eye can actually see and a lot more with what the brain can actually perceive. Basically the brain tells you what information is good and what information is bad, and it ignores the bad. What this spell did was let me _not_ throw out the information my subconscious brain thinks is “bad.”

When the spell took hold, I could see _everything_ in that shed. I could see and count every crack in the wall. I could see individual fibers on the various tent bags, and I could see a small indentation on the mats that could have been made by a rather large rat, but it would be a rodent of unusual size. The indent was a little lumpy, as if the rat were heavier in some areas than others. There really hadn’t been any clue as to what exactly it was. However, it had left too quickly for me to do anything about it, and there weren’t any further indications of strangeness. So it really didn’t matter. I ended the spell and gestured for Molly and Becca to come on in.

“Doesn’t look like there’s any more rats here,” Becca commented. “That was just too weird. I thought Father Jeffries ensured there was pest control all the time here.”

“Usually there is,” I said. “It definitely—”

“—was weird to see,” Molly said, and that feeling flared up again. I couldn’t tell quite what it was. “Let’s get these tents out and start putting them together.”

“Right,” Becca said in unison with me. We smiled at each other, and she snaked her hand into mine. After giving it a squeeze, she retrieved it so we could get the tents. The three of us worked together to set up the tents, and when Drew came to join us a little later, we were able to get them set up quicker. Thoughts of the thing we thought was a rat were far from our minds as we worked. Danny, Mattie, Amanda, and Alicia all joined in on the help, and they’d been a big one. We’d managed to get two of the seven tents set up by the time more help arrived. It was about time too.

And that brings us back to where we were, with Uncle Sam asking about his top hat. The guy had power to back up his claim as Uncle Sam, but it still was something hard to believe. After all, who would believe such a thing? Also, who would want his top hat?


	3. Chapter Three

Okay, back to Harry’s office. “Uncle” Sam’s declaration had shocked Molly and I enough that we separated out of our synchronization a little, and I just… I couldn’t really believe it. A top hat. Of course, Harry had been hired to find all sorts of things before. A top hat really wasn’t all that unusual in the grand scheme of things, but the fact that he was being hired by someone claiming to be Uncle Sam was. I didn’t recall anything like this happening to Harry in my memories, and while I knew that my memories weren’t entirely complete, this is the sort of event that’d probably stick out in them. Harry Dresden, hired by Uncle Sam to find a top hat. Probably in some case file with the name _Top Hat_ or something of the like.

Looking at my mentor, my boss, I could almost imagine what must be going through his head right now. Given the elderly state of his client, he probably was going through and shooting down every possible joke he could make at the man’s expense. Especially if the guy planned on paying him. Hey, Harry could be professional if he needed to be, and given his current state of finances, Harry needed to be. I knew that Harry hadn’t had any major cases in the past few months, which was one of the reasons that we were actually going to insist that he came to the barbecue that evening. However, if this guy was willing to pay Harry what he needed to be paid to find a top hat, then maybe Harry wouldn’t be in as dire straits as he’d been. Of course, I wasn’t really privy to all of Harry’s financials. Maybe he’d been doing some tracking cases while we were in school. Ah, the wheels had finished turning, Harry’s infamous wit was coming to him.

“So you want me to find your top hat. Why come to me?” Harry asked, and I could see his hand twitching slightly. Harry felt the power from the guy calling himself Uncle Sam, but he wasn’t commenting on it, why?

“You come highly recommended,” Uncle Sam said. “For finding things that nobody else can find, and for standing up for just causes at expense to yourself. You fight for the freedom of others, and that alone makes you worth it.”

“Really giving into the whole Uncle Sam shtick, aren’t you?” Harry asked, looking over the man but refusing to meet his eyes. I actually looked at the man as well, letting my eyes find his own, locking with his. He had deep pools of chocolate brown, but now that I was looking closer at them, I noted their shape. His pupils were odd… They weren’t really slitted like the Sidhe, but they definitely weren’t circular. In fact, they reminded me of the stars on the American flag, perfectly shaped, and I couldn’t help but stare at them. I was certain I heard Harry talking about something, but for some reason it was unimportant. The office spread out around me, and suddenly I could hear music.

The trumpeting sounds of “Hail to the Chief” played over a set of speakers before they crackled and died due to the natural hexing. Beneath my feet, the plush carpet supported my power heels and the nice suit I wore had me ready for this day of work. The seal of the President of the United States made a wonderful circle around where I stood. The view of the lawn from here was stunning, and I was glad I could finally actually work from home.

I surveyed my office and smiled. It had taken a lot of work to win that election, especially with those televised debates. Binding up my magic so that I could go on camera easily wasn’t the hard part; no, it was keeping it bound when my opponent mocked my age, my closeness to my sister, my policies, and everything else. Still, I’d earned this office, and I’d do right by my country.

The first thing I’d do as President is make sure that our country was secure from supernatural threats that might wish it ill. I’d probably have to do it under the guise of rooting out terrorists and insurgents, but I’d make sure that… Wait, something was wrong here, wasn’t there? When had I gotten elected?

I walked around the desk and sat at it. I couldn’t recall being elected. I remembered the debates. Vicious things, terrible. I remembered that my opponent had called me a number of nasty things, but I couldn’t remember who the opponent was. I couldn’t remember what he had actually called me. Hell, I couldn’t even remember the party that I belonged to. Something wasn’t right. Wasn’t it against the constitution for a fourteen-year-old girl to be elected president anyway? I was pretty sure that the twenty-eight years I lived in my last life didn’t count toward the minimum age in this one. Who would elect me anyway?

An aide peeked his head into the office. I couldn’t recall his name off-hand, but then again, if what I thought was correct, he might not even have had one. Of course, if I was wrong, and for some reason this was real, I needed to keep up appearances. “Madame President? Your three o’clock is here.”

I smiled. Here was the keeping up appearances part. My three o’clock had to be the person that I felt closest to. “Send her—”

“—in? Fai, wake up.” Molly shook my arm and waved her hand in front of my eyes. I blinked. That hadn’t actually been all that hard to get out of with the help of Molly, but it had definitely been weird. It certainly hadn’t been what I’d expected when looking into the eyes of… Uncle Sam. Gave a whole new meaning to the term starry-eyed, I suppose.

Somehow, when I’d been out, the whole thing had gone to crap. Harry had his blasting rod out, pointing it at Uncle Sam. The runes of the fire wand had lit up as the tip started shining with a deep red light.

“If you don’t let her go, so help me…” Harry’s voice had gone low as he threatened the man who would be his client. I knew that if I didn’t say anything then, Harry’d potentially lose his client. I didn’t really think Uncle Sam did it on purpose. It had been too easy to break out of. Too easy to see the edges. Sure I’d had Molly, but I was pretty sure that I would have gotten out on my own eventually. I had no real desire to be the President of the United States, now or ever.

“Harry,” I said. “I’m okay… It was my fault, Harry…”

Harry glanced back at me and grunted before lowering his rod. I was almost certain that the noise was supposed to mean something, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, be sure what. The power Harry had gathered slipped away, and he stepped away from Uncle Sam, who actually seemed unfazed by the entire thing. Uncle Sam brushed off his coat somewhat and he turned to me, bowing slightly.

“My apologies, Miss Carpenter. Without my top hat, it’s not easy to just turn that off,” Uncle Sam said.

“That wasn’t a soulgaze.” I stood up, still mostly okay. “And Harry never gave you my last name. Who are you, really?”

“Good catch, Grasshopper,” Harry murmured as he towered next to me. Molly stood on the other side of Harry, each of us ready to deal with whatever Uncle Sam was in our own fashion. Which… mostly would be let Harry deal with it while we ran away.

“Like I said before, I am Uncle Sam,” he said. “And I want _you_ to find my top hat, Mister Dresden. It helps prevent situations like what happened with you, Miss Carpenter. I do plan on paying for it, of course. You’re providing a service to the free market.”

“What are you?” Harry asked.

“The answer to that and who I am are one and the same. I’m Uncle Sam. The Spirit of American Patriotism.” Uncle Sam posed, but for some reason it looked wrong without a top hat. “Now, can you help me, wizard, or not?”

Harry frowned, and I could almost hear him thinking. Sam hadn’t taken any overtly hostile action here, but it was obvious that he wasn’t human. He also wasn’t, as far as any of us could tell, connected with either of the Fae Courts, and it was uncertain exactly what he was to begin with. Still, something told me that Harry would take this case… if only so he could get the payday.

“You are aware of my fees, right?” Harry asked.

“Fifty dollars an hour, plus expenses. I believe that this should cover the first two days.” Sam reached into the pockets of his pants and pulled out an unmarked gold bar, laying it on the shelf near where he stood. I assumed he did that because he might have thought that approaching Harry’s desk and laying it there would constitute a threatening action. “I also have some threads that come from the hat for you.”

“Could you describe the hat?” Harry asked as he stepped forward to take the bar from the shelf. Uncle Sam pulled out a plastic bag with some threads and handed it to him.

“You’ve seen the posters, boy,” Uncle Sam said. “It’s a white top hat with a ribbon of blue with the stars from the flag on them. The brim of the hat is red.”

I blinked, thinking back to that morning. “Where did you have the hat last?”

“I didn’t, actually,” Uncle Sam said. “Well, not this year anyway. The last time I had my hat was last Fourth of July, but, like always, when the sun rose July 5th, I had to return to my abode. My hat was placed where it always is when not in use, in my display case in what you would call the Nevernever. However, when I went to grab it yesterday, it wasn’t there.”

“What makes you think it’s in Chicago?” Harry asked.

“I’m pretty good at hunting down leads,” Sam said with a grin. Something in that statement stood out to me, but I wasn’t sure what. “Unfortunately, when it got to Chicago, the trail ended, but like I said before, you come highly recommended, Mister Dresden. I’ve been told that you’re like a dog when you’re finding something… or maybe a bloodhound. I could use that.”

“Have a number I can contact you at?” Harry asked. “Or should I just set up a circle, several sparklers, some apple pie and some bullets while singing the national anthem?”

“If you get my top hat back, you need only put a feather in the cap and I’ll know,” Sam said. “But if you wish a more traditional number, here is my card.”

Uncle Sam produced a simple business card embossed with just a phone number and the name “Uncle Sam.” The number was local, and near as I could tell, it didn’t seem like a random one.

“All right. You have a deal. I’ll find your top hat,” Harry said.

“I knew you were the right man for the job,” Uncle Sam said, and he stepped out the door. As the door started to close, I heard him whistling the tune to Yankee Doodle, and I shook my head. I couldn’t believe that Harry actually had agreed to work for this. Then again, he had paid in what appeared to be solid gold.

“All right, grasshoppers, we have ourselves a case.” Harry gestured toward the door. “This seems minor enough that you two should be okay to accompany me on it. I’ll even give you some of the pay.”

I glanced at the gold bar. “After you’ve turned—"

“—it into real money, right?” Molly asked, finishing my question.

“Of course,” Harry said. “Now, Faith, what did you do wrong while I was talking with him?”

“I looked into his eyes,” I said, looking down. It had been a dumb mistake, but his eyes had been so oddly captivating. Star-shaped pupils were interesting.

“It’ll probably help both of you if you get into the habit of not looking people in the eyes at all, or at least not for very long. It’ll help prevent soulgazes, and, as we saw here, it’ll help prevent beings from the Nevernever from doing things to your head,” Harry gestured to me. “Still, you asked the right questions, kid. Maybe there’s a future for you in this line of work.”

I shrugged. “Simple questions aren’t hard to think of, Harry.”

“She’s right,” Molly said. “Though, I do have a question. What next?”

“Well, after we get this gold bar put away somewhere safe,” Harry said, patting the gold bar before continuing, “we’ll go get a snack at Burger King.”

“… Harry, we were going to invite you to the St. Mary’s barbecue today,” I said. “Of course, with the case, you might not be able to come, but it’d mean a lot to Daddy if you did.”

“I… suppose I could just get some fries at Burger King,” Harry said.

Molly and I nodded, beaming at the wizard. “What then?”

“Then, my grasshoppers, it will be time to do some magic.” Harry shook the plastic baggie. “You two will do the tracking spell.”

“Us?” Molly and I said in unison.

“Yeah. You can do it,” Harry said. “I believe in you. Don’t worry too much about it.”

Saying that really didn’t help Harry. Neither of us wanted to disappoint our mentor at all. Of course, given the rest of the events that happened that day, maybe disappointing Harry might have been a blessing in disguise. After all, disappointment wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

  



	4. Chapter Four

I don’t know what it is about Burger King, but something about the restaurant brings out a side of Harry that’s just blatantly ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like Burger King. I’m just not nearly as nuts about it as Harry Dresden. My sister really isn’t either, but given that Harry is our mentor, we have to put up with his little idiosyncrasies. Harry always orders the same thing when he goes to Burger King: three burgers, some fries and a Coke. Occasionally he adds a shake or upgrades one of his burgers to a more premium kind, but for the most part it’s that order. I never really could figure out why. Molly always seemed to think it had something to do with nostalgia, which is why Harry would get the crown and place it on his head, but the more cynical part of me said it had to do with times where Harry didn’t necessarily have the money to cover anything better. Maybe it was a bit of both, really.

Today, Harry had limited himself to a small order of fries and a Coke while Molly and I each got a milkshake. Mine was chocolate; hers was chocolate in only the most technical sense. Burger King had one of those limited run milkshake flavors that Molly had wanted to try, a java mocha blend, and that’s really all that needed to be said about that. Coffee. Blegh. Can’t stand the stuff. It’s one of the few things that my sister and I differ on taste-wise.

Once we had our food… Okay, once Harry had his food and Molly and I had our shakes, the three of us sat down in one of the booths at the Burger King. Thankfully Harry wasn’t ruining his appetite by having m—oh, who am I kidding? If Harry’d had more than the fries, it still wouldn’t have ruined his appetite, not for Daddy’s burgers, anyway. Daddy was, on the grill, much like Mom was in the kitchen: a master. There was a reason that Father Forthill had placed him on grill duty.

“So,” Harry said, brandishing a fry to point at Molly. “Just to make sure you remember. Tracking spells, Grasshopper. How do they work?”

“… Are you seriously pointing at her with a fry?” I asked.

“Drink your shake, Faith. You’re next.” Harry ate his fry. “Go on, Molly.”

I sipped my shake as Molly began her explanation. I didn’t want to interrupt her with what I knew, and I knew she knew what Harry was asking for and she knew that I knew she knew. _You heard the man, Moll. Blow his wizard mind_.

“Right,” Molly said, giving me a sidelong glance as I put on my best innocent face. “Tracking spells are technically a type of divination, which is a subset of thaumaturgy. We use the bits of something to find the thing that the bits came from. In this case, the threads should help us find the hat.”

“And its weaknesses, Faith?” Harry asked, pointing another fry at me.

I purposefully slurped my shake as Molly took a sip of hers. I glared at the fry. It was like he was mocking me with it, but I wasn’t going to let it bother me. He could wait.

Molly nudged me with her elbow. _Really, Fai?_ _You’re going to go with that?_

_He shouldn’t be pointing with food. It’s rude._ I sniffed and then slurped my shake a little more, even as Harry continued to point, gripping the fry a little tighter.

“You told me to drink my shake,” I said, finally, barely resisting the urge to stick out my tongue at him, and then I got a little serious. “Tracking spells have a few weaknesses, actually. If the sample’s not recent, sometimes you won’t be able to find the subject. Of course, with inanimate objects, that’s less likely to happen as the sample won’t change much if at all during the timeframe you get the pieces at. The tracking spells also only give you a general direction, pointing directly at where the subject is. It doesn’t account for obstacles in the way.” Except if you do it however Thomas did that one time. Neither Molly nor I were certain how he managed to pull that off, and we couldn’t exactly go ask him. Last we heard, the vampire was in Aruba with Justine.

“Good, and I know the two of you know _how_ to do a tracking spell,” Harry said. “So I won’t quiz you on that.”

The sense of relief that my sister and I felt at that statement probably could have been felt by the people across the room, but we knew what was coming next. “So then…”

“After we finish up here, we’ll set up in the parking lot. Each of you will take some of the strands, and then you’ll cast your spell. Both should be pointing the same direction.” Harry put two more fries in his mouth, and we sipped our shakes.

Soon enough the three of us had finished, and the sun beat down upon us in the parking lot from its position in the midday sky. Normally, most magic is done in the evening or night time, as for some metaphysical reason, it was easier to perform then. Additionally, you were less likely to be seen doing something supernatural by a random person who might have had a camera phone, something that was becoming increasingly common these days. Still, we were, effectively, on the clock. Harry’d been pre-paid for his services with a gold bar. Admittedly, it was probably just over a quarter pound, but gold was expensive these days.

Harry gave Molly and I each a piece of chalk and one of the threads from the plastic bag he’d received from Uncle Sam. Molly and I knew which way we needed to go from there, and we separated by a few paces. I glanced to my sister, and then I looked at the distance we were from each other. _We’d probably have to be on opposite sides of the parking lot to get any sort of triangulation going._

_I don’t really think Harry thought about doing that,_ Molly sent, glancing at our mentor. Harry did only have a GED, after all, and both my sister and I finished some advanced mathematics courses a couple months ago. Molly finished Precalculus while I finished Calculus. Between the two of us, the math for such a thing would be relatively easy. The real trick would be eyeballing the angles as neither of us had a protractor.

_Harry’s way today?_ I glanced at where Molly and I were, and I removed my crucifix from around my neck. Molly nodded and she did the same. The two of us used the chalk that Harry gave us to draw a simple circle around ourselves on the ground in the parking lot. We knew that we wouldn’t have to be separated from each other long, but we needed to keep out foreign energies when we were casting this spell. Thaumaturgy was a finicky thing, but a tracking spell was a relatively simple cast.

Wrapping the thread around the chain of my crucifix, I started my spell. This spell was one of the first things that Harry taught us, by having us chase down his giant cat using a few hairs from him. If it had been a couple years later, I have no doubt in my mind that Harry would have used another animal that he wouldn’t have had to use Bob to keep track of in case we failed. A tracking spell is easy. It basically works like a magical compass, only instead of pointing your “needle” north, it points to the object in question. Casting it is as simple as running energy through both the item you’re using as the “needle” and the item that’s linked to what you’re trying to find. The real trick is being able to focus the energy needed to cast it. For a minor talent, this could take anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes.

For Molly and I, it took maybe a minute and a half of hard focusing, and then we spent about a minute just making sure we actually got our crucifixes pointing. It almost felt like sacrilege using them this way, but Harry’s way involved using items to point with, and I didn’t exactly have anything else. I know Molly had some ideas on that, but both of us were hesitant to implement them without further study. We each broke our circles, finishing our spells, and our crucifixes began tugging on the chains, each pointing toward the same direction, albeit at slightly different angles. Unfortunately, both angles barely had any real difference given the distance between us, and as such, we weren’t going to be able to use them to triangulate.

“Looks like the two of you pulled it off, Grasshoppers.” Harry walked over to us. “Now, let’s get in the Beetle and head to find this thing.” I paused, looking where my crucifix pointed, and then I thought about what was in that general direction. Nah. There was no way that it could be anywhere near the barbecue. So we climbed into Harry’s deathtrap of a VW Beetle.

Harry’s car, named the Blue Beetle, likely was actually completely blue once, and I even have vague memories of sitting in the car when it was mostly painted blue. Of course, now its driver-side door was a green color, and the hood was red. The interior had recently been replaced with all-new cloth seats, likely from some windfall Harry had gotten from the case Harry’d had with the Shroud of Turin a few months back. Apparently the original interior had gotten eaten by mold demons. He still hadn’t managed to get the damage to the front completely fixed yet. He explained the damage as coming from something he called a Chlorofiend. Knowing Harry, it was some kind of plant monster. Wait…

I climbed into the back seat, still holding onto my crucifix, and then Molly folded the seat back behind her and settled into the passenger side. Each of our crucifixes tugged on the chains, pointing in the same direction.

“Now that just looks wrong,” Harry said. “I’m going to have to get you two something better to use in a pinch for this sort of thing, and it’ll be something that will be important.”

“Okay,” I said, and my sister nodded. “So, car, start time now?”

I gave a silent prayer as Harry turned the ignition. I knew the Beetle had failed on him before when he’d wanted it not to, but luckily this time we managed to avoid that fate. Harry pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, following the general direction that Molly’s crucifix pointed. He couldn’t exactly see mine, after all.

“So, care to take any bets on where it is?” Harry asked. “Given Sam’s nature, I’m betting at some sort of Army recruitment center.”

“Are those posters even in use anymore?” Molly asked. “He’s supposed to be the patriotic spirit of America. I’m betting somewhere they’re selling a lot of paraphernalia for the Fourth.”

I kept my mouth shut as I looked out the window, thinking back to the morning and the direction that we were headed. That depression had been too big to come from a rat. I couldn’t be completely certain, but I noticed where the crucifix pointed as we drove down the street. A mental guesstimate with the space that Molly and I had between us let me do a _very_ crude triangulation. The issue was that we were still way too close to each other to get any real data there. Still. Judging from likely areas our lines would cross, there was only one that made sense.

And given that as we came closer, our crucifixes hooked toward there, I knew I was right. “I’m going to say that the hat is at a barbecue currently. You might want to find a parking space.”

“Huh. Well, that’ll be easy enough,” Harry said, getting ready to pull into the parking lot. “Good God and good food, and maybe we’ll have time for some good fun. After all, how hard can it be to find a top hat here?”

When Harry pulled into the last open space in the church parking lot at St. Mary’s, Molly and I glared at him for uttering that phrase. A veritable sea of people had shown up for this event, many of whom had decided to dress up for it.

How hard could it be indeed?

  



	5. Chapter Five

I looked out over the people that had shown up for the St. Mary’s Barbecue. No wonder Father Forthill had been happy. With this number of people showing up, donations must have been amazing. There had to have been at least a thousand people mulling about the Church and its area, talking to each other, listening to music, eating, and more or less making merry. Kids ran around, playing one game or another, their laughter carrying on the air. This had to be more than half of the entire congregation, and what made it worse? It seemed like every other person was wearing a Stars and Stripes top hat.

“Stars and stones, you have to be kidding me,” Harry said as he surveyed the crowd. “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack of needles.”

I couldn’t help myself. Given the situation, there really was only one thing I could say to that. “Don’t you mean ‘Stars and Stripes,’ Harry? I mean, festive day and all.”

“Or maybe ‘Rocket’s Red Glare!’” Molly said gleefully, and I felt the challenge in her tone. Molly wanted to make this _fun_.

“Or ‘by the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth?” I asked, and I swear I saw Harry’s eyebrow twitch. Oh, yes, this was nice.

“How’s that patriotic?” While my sister had a point, I couldn’t leave it at that. It was time to draw on my vast lack of comic knowledge.

“Didn’t Doctor Strange do a stint as Captain America for a bit?” I couldn’t help the grin that came to my face when I saw Harry twitch again. “I swear I remember reading something like that.”

“Don’t think so,” Molly said, tapping her chin in thought. Oh, she was having fun with this too. “Maybe something about a—”

“Enough, you two,” Harry said, cutting Molly off. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. “If I’m anyone, I’m Spider-Man. After all, I’m supposed to be the smart ass here.”

“You _have_ a smart ass…” Molly said, and I won’t say that I agreed with her. I knew my sister crushed on Harry something fierce, but I had a girlfriend; I didn’t look at Harry’s ass to verify Molly’s statement.

No, instead I turned my attention back toward the crowd. It was time to get at least a little bit serious. We did have a job to do, after all. “Well, each of us has some of the threads from the top hat we’re supposed to find. If it’s here, I’m sure we can find it.”

“Might be best if we split up to cover more ground,” Harry said, seeming to agree with me. “Be careful if you’re going to be doing magic around other people. Tracking spells aren’t really that flashy, but if someone’s sensitive to it, they might ask what you’re doing.”

Molly and I nodded, agreeing with his sentiment. Though we’d prefer to stick together, given the sheer amount of people and top hats, it probably was a better idea if we did split the party. After all, it wasn’t like there was anything dangerous likely to happen at the barbecue, anyway.

“Meet at the storage shed?” I asked. “Or if we find something, give off a signal of some sort?”

“Loud noise might be best,” Harry said, and then he pointed in a direction. “But yeah, that’s not a bad idea. Faith, you go that way. Molly, that way. I’ll go this way, and if we don’t find anything, we can meet where you said.”

“Okay. See you two on the other side then. Fai, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Molly gave me a hug and then started off in the direction Harry directed. Nodding to Harry, I did the same, pushing my way into the crowd.

Now, a talent that both my sister and I have been developing as we’ve learned more is a bit of empathy. We can sense the emotions of others pretty easily, assuming that they’re close to us. From what I remembered of my last life, Molly had this talent then as well, and it gave her some trouble when dealing with crowds. So, understandably, going into this large a crowd of people had me a little nervous as to what I would sense and whether it’d be overwhelming or not. Luckily, I suppose, my sense of the crowd wasn’t as strong as I feared, and the emotions I felt from the crowd more or less made a collective white noise of general fun and enjoyment. It was almost relaxing in a way as I walked through the crowd.

I passed by a number of tents that I’d helped to set up that morning, each of them occupied by either people eating food, people drinking, or people playing games. I was honestly surprised at the various games that the church had managed to get set up here. Some of the games were rather simple carnival games with silly prizes like grab bag candy or tiny patriotic bears, others were sports-themed games that were going. I saw some people throwing a football around and there appeared to be a pick-up soccer game going on over in an area of the field.

I saw a familiar dark-haired girl driving the ball down the field, and a smile came to my face. Alicia was much more than a bookworm, I was certain. The control she had over the ball at her age meant that she’d only get better as she got older. I knew that at some point she’d probably be on a proper soccer team, maybe a school one. I’d have to make sure to catch a few of her games when that happened. No matter where I was, what happened to me, I’d need to make sure to watch those.

So distracted was I by watching my little sister, I only barely noticed as a slender arm snaked its way around my waist and gave me a squeeze. Once that happened, only an extreme bit of composure kept me from jumping, but I couldn’t stop the giggles from escaping my mouth as I turned to the arm’s owner.

“Becca!” My voice was not in a shrill shriek. “Where’d you come from?”

“About time you got back here,” Becca said. “I’ve been waiting for you all afternoon. There’s only so much I can stand to watch at a time when I want to watch _you_.”

Heat came to my cheeks. We couldn’t exactly do anything here, given the general attitude of most churchgoers to our… well, us-ness, but we could snuggle and hold hands.

“Well, I’m not exactly here for long… at least not yet,” I said, leaning into Becca’s soft arm and wrapping my own around her back. Sure, she was a little shorter than me, but it always felt nice to be with her. Sure, I needed to look for that top hat, but nothing said I couldn’t spend a little time with my girlfriend while doing so.

“Oh? Why not?” Becca asked. “Where’d you go anyway?”

“Well, you know how I had that after school studying thing with Molly?” I asked, and I felt a twinge of something from Becca there. I couldn’t tell what it was.

“Ah, yeah… wait, it’s summer time. Why are you studying in summer?” Becca asked.

“It’s not a for school studying thing,” I said. “It’s actually almost a work-study thing. Harry’s paying us when we help out on his cases, but he’s also teaching us in the process.”

“Harry…” Becca frowned. “You told me this before, I’m pretty sure. Sorry if I don’t remember. Harry who?”

“Harry Dresden,” I said.

“That nut from Larry Fowler?” Becca asked. “I mean; he lists himself as a wizard in the phone book. He doesn’t really believe in magic, does he?”

“We’re Catholic, at a Catholic church event,” I pointed out. “Is magic really all that unbelievable when you think about the miracles in the Bible?”

“Yeah, well… that’s the Bible. Most of it’s figurative anyway,” Becca said. “I mean, how often to miracles actually happen anyway?”

I pursed my lips. I didn’t know if I really wanted to tell Becca that I believed in magic myself because I could _do it_. I didn’t want to shatter my girlfriend’s worldview, but at the same time, I didn’t really like hiding that part of myself from her.

“Harry’s a friend of the family, and he’s helped out the Chicago Police Department on a number of cases,” I said. “We’re learning how he does that, and we’re applying it ourselves.”

Okay, so I was a little bit of a coward about it. Becca deserved to know, but I wasn’t so sure that I could tell her today. I didn’t want to tell her while I was in the middle of something like this anyway, too much of a chance that it could interfere.

“Ah, I see. So, if he’s been successful, he must have some tips and tricks that work, even if he’s got a weird gimmick,” Becca said, and then, seemingly sensing my unease, she ran a hand through my hair. “When we get a chance this weekend, I want to take you shopping. Just the two of us.”

I nodded. “I’d love to. I’m sure Molly will want to see what you and I get after we’re done.”

There it was again, that feeling, but Becca smiled and shifted her hand down to squeeze my waist. “Yeah, I’m sure she will. We’ll get you a _very_ nice outfit.”

Oh. That was an interesting feeling coming from Becca… and I felt my face heat up in response. My slightly older girlfriend had some interesting tastes, for certain. Becca took advantage of my stalled motion, and she gave me a peck on the cheek. Yes, it was a bit chaste for what we both wanted to do, but given the audience around us… It was for the best.

“You’re still cute when you blush, Fai,” Becca said, and she moved her arm a little higher, squeezing me closer. “Come find me when you’re done with whatever it is that you’re doing for the crazy wizard.”

“Okay, Becks,” I said, and I gave her a return squeeze. “He’s not crazy…”

“All right, Fai,” Becca raised her hands. “I’ll go grab some food and check on my parents. I’ll see you later.”

“Later,” I said, and my girlfriend slipped into the crowd to find her parents, while I surveyed the crowd once more. I did need to cast that tracking spell one more time for certain. With the number of top hats here, there’d be no way to know for certain which one was the right one if I couldn’t discern its direction at the least. I needed a decently open area to cast at. Maybe over by the… wait, was that a dunk tank? With Father Forthill as the person being dunked?

I made my way through the crowd so I could get a better look, I mean so that I could use the open area as a decent casting point. Yeah. I didn’t care that it was Father Forthill about to get dunked. I wasn’t going to stand in the line to do the dunking. I managed to get to a decent observation area.

It looked like each person got three chances to dunk Father Forthill, and if they failed, they were to go to the back of the line to try again. That really wasn’t all that notable as that usually was how it tended to work. What I did notice though, was the small tow-headed girl approaching the front of the line. My younger sister Amanda, second youngest girl and third youngest overall kid.

“I’m gonna dunk you, Father!” Amanda called out, and a smile came to my face as she took the first baseball.

“If you think so, Miss Carpenter, you’re free to try!” Father Forthill played his part well, and Amanda pulled back her arm, winding up for her throw. My five-year-old sister released the ball in a near-perfect imitation of a Cubs pitcher. It was only too bad that she was imitating a Cubs grounder rather than a fastball as the ball dipped far below the target on the dunk tank. “Oh, too bad, Miss Carpenter. Care to try again?”

“Come on Mandy, you just need to throw a little higher,” I called out to her. “Look at the target, and then throw right at it.”

Amanda looked over to me and then back at the target. She lifted up her right leg as a part of her wind-up, and she stuck the tip of her tongue out the right side of her mouth. She pulled back her hand and then she released again. Once again, the ball dipped before it could even reach the target. I couldn’t believe that they were making a five-year-old my sister’s size throw from the same distance as everyone else. That definitely wasn’t fair.

“Encouragement doesn’t seem to be enough, Miss Carpenter.” Father Forthill wasn’t quite being the infuriating ass that most dunk tank operators were, but he was getting to the borderline. “Perhaps you should wait until you’re older.”

“I’m going to dunk you! Just you watch! Faith! I’m gonna dunk him!” Amanda said shrilly, and privately, I agreed. This time, I turned my attention to the ball. That ball was going to strike true; I’d make sure of it. As Amanda readied to throw again, I gathered a small amount of energy. I didn’t really need to use a circle for this simple application, as all I needed to do was do a bit of focused telekinesis. The real trick to this one would be to make it not so obvious that it was magical, which meant that I needed to not let it have any visible showings of energy. I could do that.

Amanda did her little wind-up once more, and I muttered an incantation under my breath. It really didn’t matter what I was muttering as it just was to help me focus my intention. When Amanda released the ball this time, I snagged it, causing it to buck slightly in its path, but I kept it going. The ball sped from my sister toward the pressure plate that the dunk tank operated off of, and keeping the momentum up, I slammed the ball into the pressure plate before releasing my spell.

With a satisfying splash, Father Forthill struck the water, and an even more satisfying bit of laughter erupted from my younger sister.

“I did it! I did it Faith, didja see? Didja see?” Amanda ran over to where I was, pointing toward the dunk tank. “I threw and it hit and he went in!”

“I saw,” I said, looking down at my sister’s smile. I was sure her eyes were shining as well, but I wasn’t going to dare exchange a soulgaze with a five-year-old. It wouldn’t do to let her have it. I lifted my sister up into my arms, grunting a bit at her weight. “So, what do you say we go find Daddy and let him know the good news?”

“Kay! I can walk though!” Amanda squirmed in my arms, and I put her down. Sometimes I hated being the responsible one. I was pretty sure that Mom and Daddy were around somewhere nearby, but as I couldn’t really see either of them at the moment, I had to make sure that Amanda would be fine. I still needed to cast my spell. While I was pretty certain that none of the top hats I’d seen so far were the right one, I wasn’t able to be certain. “Daddy’s this way!”

I followed my younger sister closely, and after passing the latest line of people, I saw him. Daddy was wearing a pair of jeans and a patriotic shirt today. It really wasn’t all that hard to pick him out of a crowd. Of course, I knew the moment that Amanda spotted him.

“Daddy! Guess what, guess what!” Amanda ran over to our father. See? I knew the exact moment she saw him.

“So you were successful?” Daddy smiled down at her. He locked eyes with me as I approached, and I inclined my head. Daddy probably guessed just how Amanda succeeded, but from the smile, it wasn’t that big a deal.

“Uh huh! Father Forthill went sploosh! And I hit the target!” Amanda giggled.

“Yeah, it was a good hit, Mandy,” I said as I got closer. “Good job.”

“Thank you!” Amanda beamed, and I could feel the joy coming from her. “Where’s Mommy? I wanna tell her!”

“Your mother is feeding Harry and Hope at the table back there,” Daddy said, pointing them out at a specific table. Amanda immediately rushed over, and I could see her talking animatedly to them. I must have been staring, because Daddy had to get my attention by clearing his throat.

“Hmm?” I looked back to Daddy.

“I thought you would be showing up later with Harry,” Daddy said.

“Oh… uh… he’s actually here, but we’re not actually here for the barbecue at the moment,” I said, looking out over the crowd to pick out the one towering form. Harry had managed to make it to the center of the barbecue, and I think he’d managed to get a tracking spell up.

“What are you here for then?”

“Case, actually. Harry has us helping him with a missing item case. It just happens that the tracking spell led here.” I gestured to all the people around us. “Of course, it had to end up that way. I actually need to recast my spell so that I can try and figure out where _here_ it is.”

“What are you looking for, exactly?”

“It’s silly, but Uncle Sam’s top hat. It might actually be a magical item, but it’s still a top hat.”

“Ah. Cast your spell right here then, Faith.” Daddy gestured in front of him. “If anyone asks, don’t worry about it.”

I nodded, and drew a small circle around me. Like before, it didn’t take all that long to cast the tracking spell, and once again my crucifix tugged me in a direction. Yes, there probably was a better item, but I didn’t want to try and figure something out on the fly to use. The crucifix tugged toward a direction that was closer to the shed anyway.

“Well, looks like I have a heading, Daddy. Thank you.”

“Do what you need to, Faith. Just remember that I’m here if you need me. Let Harry know that too,” Daddy said with a smile. “I’d like to talk with him tonight if he stays.”

I nodded. “I’ll let him know. See you later.”

“God go with you.”

I made my way further down the crowd. The shed wasn’t really all that far, and I’d seen something that morning there. The crucifix pointed in that general direction, and unless it suddenly hooked in another direction, that was likely where I was headed. I still wasn’t sure what it was that I spotted that morning, but I knew that it hadn’t been a rat. Unless it was an RUS. Rodents of unusual size were typically creatures of the Nevernever, but I really didn’t know much about them other than they were a prey that Malks enjoyed.

As soon as I made it about halfway to the shed, another familiar person sidled up beside me. Drew Warren, one of my best friends, offered me a grin when he glanced at the crucifix and then back to me. Today Drew wore jeans and a red tee shirt, and his muscular arms were pretty well exposed. I’m sure that wasn’t really the intent, but there they were, all dark and muscular.

“So, tracking something?” Drew asked. “This isn’t you-know-what related, right?”

I shook my head. Like myself, Drew was a member of the true Venatori thanks to the events that happened in February, but we hadn’t really had to do anything related to that yet. Luckily. The less I had to deal with Lara Raith, the better. I didn’t care how much of a porn star body the White Court vampire had. I smiled to Drew as I gave my answer. “Normal magic stuff. Just finding a piece of clothing that someone misplaced.”

“Ah… And your spell says it’s that way?” Drew asked, and I nodded. “Mind if I tag along? I’m just more curious than anything.”

“Fine, should be safe enough,” I said. I wasn’t going to let Drew get himself hurt here, but there really wasn’t any point in stopping him from coming. This was a nice public area, and the tracking was easy enough. If Harry complained, I’d mention that Drew already knew about magic. He found out by accident.

The two of us made our way back toward the area near the shed, and we were the first to arrive. Harry looked to be caught up with some people who were questioning him about something, and I felt that Molly was held up a little in dealing with something that Mattie brought to her attention. I knew that both of them would get here soon enough, which was a good thing, because my crucifix suddenly tugged to the right and then immediately back toward the center and then to the left and back again.

“Is it supposed to be doing that?” Drew asked.

“Not really,” I said. “There shouldn’t be any reason that it would swing around like this. With a limited distance, the angles shouldn’t change this much, and if the distance were further to the point, the angles wouldn’t change this quickly.”

“What if it’s _real_ close?” Drew asked, and once again I thought back toward the morning. Whatever it was, it’d escaped from the shed in a burst of speed that was nearly too fast for me to follow outside the blur it made. My eyes flicked around as my crucifix swung like a pendulum. Idly I debated opening my Sight, in case whatever it was had veiled itself, but what I chose to do instead was focus my power once more.

“ _Soukotte_ …” I cast the spell that I considered my signature ability, given it was what I used when my magic first awoke, and time appeared to slow down. I followed the direction of the crucifix with my eyes, and what I saw intrigued me. It was a little creature, maybe two and a half feet tall, with pointed ears and green skin. It was mostly humanoid in shape, but its head was shaped in a more oblong shape than a human’s, flatter. The creature’s eyes were iris-less and pupil-less pools of red, and it had practically no visible nose to speak of, just two nostrils on the tip of its face. Its teeth were visibly sharp, and it wore… Well, it wore clothing that was apparently torn a bit in some areas. A brown leather jerkin and a pair of torn cloth pants. And in the creature’s hands was a blue and white top hat. The stars were visible on a ribbon around the base, and the underside of the brim was a nice red color.

This was _the_ top hat…. And the creature… the greenskinned little goblin, for that’s what it had to be, it had it. The creature cocked its head up at me and _grinned_ as the spell ended. It stopped moving for a second, and actually waved.

“Me see you too!” It said in a raspy voice, and then it turned and ran, taking the top hat with it.

Shit. Just where the hell was it going? This wasn’t what I expected to have happen at all. How the hell could it get any worse?


	6. Chapter Six

I’d spotted the top hat. At least, judging from the reaction of my tracking spell, it had to have been the top hat, and when combined with the thing that _held_ the top hat, the day had officially turned troublesome. The creature had to be from the Nevernever, as the way it moved was just… way too fast for its size, for what it had to be. There was no way anything like that _wasn’t_ a goblin, or at least some sort of Fae facsimile of one.

“What… What was that?” Drew asked, looking to me. “You saw it, right? It was a little green thing that had a white and blue top hat in its hands. You saw it, right?”

I nodded. So it had slowed down temporarily to taunt me. That wasn’t something that had happened during the spell. I assumed that the reason it slowed down was either because it noticed my perception increase somehow, or it noted the crucifix moving as it hopped around like a jumping bean on crack.

“I saw it, Drew I think it was a goblin.” I looked back toward the crowd, and then to where the thing had been. Goblins. I really didn’t know much about goblins, save for what I remembered from before, and I couldn’t know for certain how accurate my memory of what I read was. Goblins were a type of wyldfae, and they tended to be members of the Great Hunt… no, Wild Hunt. From what I remembered, they came in all shapes and sizes, and tended to be reminiscent of Tolkien’s orcs. Of course, little known fact: in _The Hobbit_ , the words “goblin” and “orc” are used practically interchangeably. Tolkien originally intended on them to be of the same race of beings that opposed the forces of good. Of course, I suppose, the alternative could be that he actually met some goblins once and based how they looked in his books off of how the creatures he met looked.

Given that the man had been dead for decades at this point, it really would be impossible to ask, and that wouldn’t explain how he determined how they looked back in my last life, where I was pretty certain that the supernatural either didn’t actually exist or there was one hell of a masquerade that I never encountered it. Either way, it didn’t matter.

“Goblins…” Drew shook his head. “That was a goblin? I mean, I can believe that since I saw it, but I didn’t know they were real.”

“Pretty much every myth and legend has some basis in reality,” I said, nodding to my friend. “Heck, sometimes the myth and legend _makes_ them real. Get enough belief behind something, and things happen. At least, that’s what Harry says, anyway.”

“Huh. Where is th—oh, that’s him over there, isn’t it?” Drew gestured at where Harry easily stuck out of the crowd.

“Yeah… I need to signal him. It should be loud. Have anything that might work?” I asked, and then I winced slightly on seeing Drew’s grin. This couldn’t be good.

“Oh yeah. I think I have just the thing,” Drew said, reaching into each of his pockets. From his left pocket, he fished out a little blue Bic lighter, and from the other pocket he fished out a small cylinder with a green fuse coming out of it.

“No… that’s not what I think it is, is it?” There was no way that Drew would have been able to obtain one of those here in the city. The only legal fireworks in Illinois were snakes and sparklers, and Chicago even put a damper on most of those sales as well. Anything that exploded or went into the air was banned without special licensing, which was something I knew Drew didn’t have.

“Dad picked up a whole box of them in Indiana last week,” Drew said with a smile. “This should have enough oomph to get your boss’s attention.”

“And everyone else at the barbecue!” I said, but then I looked toward where the goblin went and back to Harry. He was moving, but without a signal, I didn’t think that he’d get here fast enough. “Never mind, go ahead.”

Drew’s grin got a bit wider as he flicked his Bic. Sparks leapt from the striker, igniting the gas as it escaped from within its plastic housing, creating that which separates us from the animals with pure ingenuity rather than magic. Okay, to be less flowery, Drew took the lighter and lit the fuse on the M80 Firecracker he held in his hand before throwing it to the ground. The two of us backed off to the minimum safe distance, and a satisfying crack resounded through the area, drawing the attention of several people, including Harry and Molly.

It didn’t take long for my sister and mentor to make their way from the crowd. The goblin still had a bit of a head start, but given how fast it had been moving, I doubted that even if it hadn’t, it’d still outpace us unless it wanted us to catch it. Given that nobody else came over to check on the explosion, I guess that either they didn’t care all that much since it wasn’t followed up by more, or they were more interested in the food and games that they had. Even in an area where fireworks were illegal, people didn’t pay attention to them when they were on an expected day at an expected time.

“Okay…” Harry said when he got within range. “I know I said loud, but an M80, really?”

“Like anything else would have gotten your attention,” I said, and when Molly was within range, I idly wrapped my arm around her back. “Found the hat and lost it again. The thing that took it ran off in that general direction.”

I vaguely gestured toward where I saw the goblin run off.

“And you didn’t chase it?” Harry asked, looking at me.

I gave Harry a flat look. “Obviously not. The little goblin was moving faster than it should have been able to, and I didn’t know what else it could do that it shouldn’t be able to do. So I figured that I should wait on the wizard.”

“Good decision, Grasshopper,” Harry said, smiling. Of course it was a good decision, Dresden. I wasn’t stupid. With Harry here, the safest place to be was by his side. Running off by myself would not be conducive to my health. “I don’t want you putting yourself in any danger if it can be avoided. I’ll go find it by my—”

“Harry, I saw it,” I said, cutting him off. “It’s a small little goblin thing with the hat. I’m not sure it can keep that speed up for long, given the pauses it made before changing directions. It’s only one thing, and if you’re there, we’ll probably be fine. We just need to separate the hat, right?”

“Right,” Molly said. “And then we can give the hat back to its owner and then we’re done. So something took the hat, big deal. It had the opportunity to attack Fai and Drew here, but it didn’t.”

Harry pursed his lips. “Okay. Fine. But if I tell you to run, you—”

“Run like a bat out of hell,” Molly and I said in unison. Frankly, this was smart. If Harry wanted us out of the way, we would need to be gone.

“And you,” Harry said, pointing at Drew. “You need to stay here. Sorry, kid, but I’m not going to be able to watch all three of you _and_ do my job.”

Drew blew out his breath. I felt a flash of defiance from him, but it was tempered by acceptance. “Fine. Fai, Molly, I’ll catch you guys later. Make it back here safe.”

“We will,” we assured him. “Harry will make sure of it.”

Harry held out his pentacle necklace and cast his own tracking spell as Drew headed back off toward the barbecue. As expected, the pentacle led off in the direction that the goblin had run, but what was unexpected was that Harry didn’t have us go back to the parking lot to get in the Beetle first. No, instead, we followed the tracking spell on foot. Maybe Harry had taken my idea to heart, and he assumed that even with that speed going, the goblin hadn’t gotten too far. Of course, given that it had been hanging around the church still when it had left the shed in the morning, maybe there had been a reason.

The three of us made our way off of church grounds, and we followed the general direction that the pentacle pointed. Sure, every few seconds, it would swing slightly to one side or the other, but the general direction didn’t change. As we went along, we began to notice some things.

On one corner, a hot dog stand had been overturned, buns in the street, dogs on the sidewalk. A small American flag stuck out of the upside down part of the cart, and the owner appeared befuddled at the turn of events. I heard him muttering something about needing a drink or seeing a shrink. One of the two, I supposed.

“Harry, you don’t think...” I glanced at the hot dog cart.

“Could be,” Harry said, and he glanced to his pentacle. The necklace still pulled further down. The goblin had a head start on us, wherever it was going. “It’s not here now though, and we need to catch up to it.”

“Right. Come on, Fai,” Molly said, hooking her arm in mine and we followed Harry’s lead.

We passed a few more overturned street vendor carts, each with their own American flag displayed proudly on them, and we passed a couple vendor kiosks that were coated in American flag stickers. It seemed like whatever this goblin’s agenda was, it had something to do with the patriotic spirit that the hat represented. We’d walked about twelve blocks when Harry’s pentacle suddenly hooked right, aiming at a building that seemed somewhat out of place in this neighborhood.

The building stood about the size of half a block on its own, its white walls giving nothing away about what it stored inside. The walls were pristinely white, which was surprising for such a canvas. Not a lick of graffiti adorned it, yet it seemed to stand empty. The parking lot around it had no cars in it, not even a token security one. We approached, trespassing as we followed the tracking spell, and Harry held up a hand.

“Okay, Grasshoppers, I think this is where I say you two stay out,” Harry said. “You’re still pretty young, and if the cops get involved, I don’t want either of you having this end up on your records. And I really don’t want to be the one to explain to your mother how I got her kids arrested.”

We started to protest. “But—”

“But nothing. I’m your mentor, you’re the apprentices. You’re not going in through that door. I’ll come out with the hat,” Harry said, his tone brooking no argument as he turned away from us and made his way in.

Should we have protested more? Maybe. I’m not sure that it would have done any good, as when Harry has his mind made up, it’s usually pretty hard to change. So he left the two of us outside as he went into the building. Apparently the front door was unlocked, and Harry had retrieved his blasting rod from within his duster’s pocket.

“I can’t believe he did that,” Molly said after Harry had disappeared into the building, crossing her arms.

“I can,” I said with a shrug. “He’s scared of Mom... and probably a little scared of Dad at the moment.”

“Oh you mean with the… Right,” Molly said, tapping her chin. “Hey, let’s take a look around the building.”

Molly started pulling on my arm, and in order to stop her, I moved with her. “He told us to stay out.”

“And we’re staying out, for now,” Molly said. “He also told us not to go in through _that_ door. He never said anything about the other doors…”

I shook my head, but I followed my sister as we circled the building. On the side that didn’t face the street, the building had some loading bays. One of which was cracked just enough that Molly and I could fit under it with a little boost and a roll. Molly had been right. We did stay out of the area Harry went in, and having two fronts of attack was better than one anyway.

Inside, the building appeared to be a typical warehouse made up of aisles of shelving racks, caged off areas, places for a forklift to operate, and some office spaces marked off with little portable type things that were nearby. None were occupied at the moment, as… well, that was pretty much the way the building seemed to be. It looked like there were still some things being stored here in some boxes. A few were open, but I couldn’t see what was inside from this angle. Something still seemed off about them though.

“You smell that?” I asked my sister.

“Yeah… it’s almost like…” She sniffed again. “Is that _gunpowder_?”

Before Molly and I could check, we heard a high-pitched giggle followed by whistling of the first few bars of “Yankee Doodle.” We turned toward the source, just as Harry swept around the corner in the far side of the warehouse room. Standing on one of the shelves was the goblin wearing the top hat. His clothes had changed to a pair of blue and white striped slacks, along with a red shirt with blue jacket. A white beard grew out the bottom of his curved face, and the green pigmentation on his skin had lightened some. However, that’s not what worried me.

In his right hand, he held a Roman candle, and in his left, he held what appeared to be a cartoon-style bottle rocket. There was only one logical place that this could have come from, which meant two things.

One. We were in a warehouse full of illegal fireworks.

And two. We were in a warehouse full of illegal fireworks with _Harry Dresden_ , and the supernatural was involved.

Because of this, only one thing came to my mind. At least this time, it wasn’t going to be my fault.

  



	7. Chapter Seven

Harry stood on the opposite end of the room, further from the goblin than Molly or I. The hairs on my arm stood up, as I looked through the room. How were we going to trap this thing? And how were we going to do so in a manner that didn’t end with a world-shattering kaboom? We needed to get that hat away from the thing, but it clearly had some sort of power. The goblin was already starting to take traits on that Uncle Sam had, and who was to say that more traits weren’t coming? Stars and stones, the goblin looked ridiculous as it was; ridiculous and dangerous. I really wasn’t certain how we could get the hat from the thing without it bolting again… or setting off those fireworks, but I knew we had to try.

I looked to Molly, and a small grin played itself upon my face. I had the semblance of a plan. Whether it was a plan that would work with whatever Harry had planned was a different story, but he was all the way over there. We were closer. Which, honestly didn’t really make all that much sense unless the front of the building that Harry went in was more a maze, but that was neither here nor there. I had a plan, and my sister knew it.

_Oh, no. You are not going to try that. The last time you tried something like that, we nearly died._ Molly glared at me.

_Only because I rolled low,_ I responded. I played a fast-talking bard in the Arcanos campaign, but my dice luck tended to vary. _Talking that thing down definitely should have worked, but it really didn’t help that the moment I rolled low, Harry went all “HULK SMASH” with his barbarian. Besides this is real life._

_More reason to think that it won’t work,_ Molly sent, and she squeezed my hand.

_Ah, come on,_ I sent back. _What’s the worst that can happen?_

Molly gasped, and the goblin turned its… his? Its head. It turned its head toward us. _You did not just…_

“Hey there,” I said to the goblin.

“Me see you, pink skin!” The goblin sneered, interrupting its whistling. It didn’t quite point the Roman candle at me, but it didn’t exactly point it away from my direction either.

“I see you too,” I said. “My name’s Faith. What’s yours?”

“Me am Sam! Sam me am! ‘Murica!” The goblin laughed, and I simultaneously resisted the urge to groan and stifled the urge to ask about his green eggs and ham. For all I knew, he might actually have had some. “What you want?”

“Oh, I just want to return a bit of property to its rightful owner,” I said. It shouldn’t be too harmful to be truthful. I didn’t recall if goblins were under the same compunctions as other Fae about the truth, but I figured if I dealt in good faith, so would the goblin. “I think you must have found it or something. The hat you have, it’s someone else’s.”

“Possession am nine tenths of law. This Sam’s hat. Me am Sam. Me am Hat. This is ‘Murica!” The goblin let out another laugh, and I swear the beard on its head grew more defined as its skin took on more of a pink tone. Its slacks turned a deeper shade of blue as well.

“That hat doesn’t belong to you… you should give it to me so I can give it back to the rightful owner,” I said, gently holding out my hand.

_Fai, you really think that’s going to work?_ Molly asked.

“No! Me am Sam! This ‘Murica! Home of Free! Hat Free! Give Liberty or Give Death!” The goblin started pacing, and a nimbus of light formed around it, something like an aura.

“Uh...” The hairs on my arms stood up as the goblin started gathering energy. I couldn’t tell just what it was doing, some sort of Fae magic, I assumed, but I knew that I probably wasn’t going to like it.

“Molly, Faith, get away from it!” Harry’s voice echoed from across the warehouse, but it was a little late.

“LIBERTY OR DEATH! LIBERTY OR DEATH! LIBERTY _BELL_!” The goblin pointed at one of the shelves and his aura extended toward it, warping, wrapping around the aluminum, brass, copper and tin. A gonging sound echoed through the warehouse, as the shelf bent and rolled itself into a bell forging that swung itself down from the top shelf and landed on its side. A crack formed where it landed, but then the top actually pushed itself out, revealing a pair of eyes… and thick, muscular humanoid arms pushed out of the sides of the bell, along with muscular humanoid legs pushing out of its bottom. “’MURICA!”

Honestly, this all happened over the course of a couple breaths, but I could see every detail clearly. The moment the bell-creature stood, I had already started moving, accompanied by my sister. The smart move here, at first glance, seemed like running away, leaving the warehouse and letting Harry handle both the goblin and the bell. Of course, that would have left Harry in danger, and neither of us wanted to be without our mentor anytime soon, so we instead split up. Molly ran left, and I ran right, each of us heading into one of the aisles of the warehouse as the bell made its way into the center.

Both of us paused, however, as we felt the buildup of energy on the opposite side of the warehouse. Let’s get a few things straight about our mentor, Harry Dresden. Harry’s a pretty awesome guy overall. He’s a smartass, intelligent, kind, and all around a nice guy. Sometimes, in fact, he’s a little too nice. When he goes out in public, he kind of draws in on himself a bit, almost as if apologizing for being as tall as he is. Yeah, I think Lieutenant Murphy probably would say a lot of the same things about him here. He doesn’t meet anyone’s eyes for long, for good reason, mind, but his eyes will often be looking all around as he walks, taking everything in. I think that’s one of the reasons he does as well as he does as a private investigator. Honestly, most of the time, Harry’s someone who it’s easy to feel comfortable around.

Then there’s the Harry that comes out when danger is around. When faced with any sort of actual danger, a change goes over Harry. It’s like the difference between Clark Kent and Superman. He goes from mild mannered wizard investigator to Harry Dresden, Defender of the Innocent, Mythical Protector to All the World. He raises his voice, and he stands tall, getting the nasties to focus primarily on him. He doesn’t even realize it, but like our father, he often reaches the perfect image of heroism. He fights monsters, and he wins. He did so for me, once. So, when given the opportunity to watch Harry in action, Molly and I took it, and we definitely weren’t disappointed.

Harry had moved his blasting rod to his left hand as he aimed a hand down the center of the aisles. “ _Forzare!_ ”

An invisible wave of force rippled down the center walkway and it slammed into the bell creature, ringing it loudly. The bell creature slid along the walkway a few feet, seemingly disoriented for only a few seconds, and then it started to charge at Harry. I honestly didn’t know if Harry knew what was stored here in the warehouse, but I wasn’t sure it would matter even if he did. Harry was running as well now, using the shelves to try and slow the bell down as he released another wave of force... from something, using a wordless cast. The bell rang once again, and I could see Harry trying to figure out what to do next.

It was only a matter of time at this point. The bell was focused on Harry, not Molly or myself, and I felt my sister turn at the same time I did. The goblin. We needed to get our hands on the goblin. Take the hat away, and maybe the bell golem would go with it. Of course, maybe it wouldn’t, but the goblin wouldn’t be able to do more. Knowing what needed to be done, we first needed to locate the goblin: not a very hard thing to do, as the thing hadn’t really moved since summoning the bell-creature. Instead it stood cackling and pointing, muttering about ‘Murica and liberty. It really seemed to enjoy when the bell rung.

As we approached, we started thinking over how we’d grab it. Pushing together seemed the right method, using a pincer maneuver. We drew closer to the goblin, who still seemed to be distracted by Harry’s repeated bonging and cries of his spellcasting. We were nearly in position. Just a few more feet, and we’d be able to do everything we needed to.

In hindsight, maybe we should have veiled or used the hasting spell, but that didn’t occur to us as we increased our speed, running toward the goblin. It looked to us and jumped, laughing as it pushed off our heads, sending us tumbling in what should have been a heap. Fortunately, our physical conditioning took over, and we rolled to our feet, ready to chase the goblin again.

“Me not easy! Me am Sam!” The goblin tossed the Roman candle away, choosing instead to reach out with its clawed fingertips and slashed at our clothing. “’Murica! Hot chicks! Explosions! Liberty!”

We growled at the goblin, and then with an effort of combined will, we said, “ _ **Sam**_ _._ ”

The goblin paused mid-step, and we started gathering more of our will. We were _done_ dealing with this thing. It wanted to play around and be all patriotic? We’d _make_ it patriotic. We’d show it what it meant to deal with a wizard’s apprentice. We began weaving a spell that’d force it to be as patriotic as possible, preparing ourselves to delve into the goblin’s psyche. The use of the goblin’s Name gave it enough pause that we could pull this off… all we needed to do wa—

“Faith, Molly! _Down!_ ” Harry’s voice broke our concentration, and instinctively, we dropped to the ground face-first. The goblin, no longer frozen, started toward us, but our attention was more on Harry. Wait… he wasn’t going to… “ _Fuego!_ ”

Fire lanced across the warehouse, over our heads, and… wait, how the hell did the bell golem get _there_? When had that happened? The fire slammed into the bell golem, who had managed to get between us and the goblin, on a shelf-side, and somehow it pushed it back into another shelf, bits of molten metal dripping off of it and turning to ectoplasm as it hit the floor. The blowback from the spell sent the goblin sprawling to the ground.

With a simple roll, we quickly got to our feet, and, each grabbing one of his arms, we picked the goblin off the ground.

“No fair! No fair! ‘Murica am freedom! Me am Sam! Hot chicks!” Sam the goblin laughed, even as we reached to pull off the hat.

“Wait…” We paused, mid-motion. “What’s so funny?”

“Heheeheee! Liberty am explosions! ‘Murica!”

We looked to the goblin and then toward the bell golem which had continued burning, longer than it should have. It supposedly was made of metal; heck, molten metal dripped off of it before turning backinto ectoplasm, but it burned like papier mâché. The goblin laughed some more, and _I_ resisted the urge to insert an uncontrollable desire to leap into the fire in its mind. The bell golem flared red, and my sister and I spun around, snatching the hat off the goblin in a fluid motion and started running. We couldn’t even see Harry as we moved toward the exit. We’d honestly hoped that with the hat off, nothing would happen.

We weren’t quite so lucky.

I glanced backward just as the golem exploded in a wave of fire and molten ectoplasm. We’d managed to get behind something metallic to avoid the shockwave and most of the fire, but the flames ignited anything and everything they could. Wonderful. The building was on fire. The building with _illegal fireworks_ was burning, and every second further, the flames licked closer to the containers and the fuses within them.

I’m totally blaming this one on Harry.


	8. Chapter Eight

Okay. Burning building. Igniting fireworks. These are the kinds of things that one tends to expect when working with Harry Dresden. I think that there might even be some sort of fire reporting code based on him by now. “Building on fire. Wizard around.” Insurance companies had to hate whenever Harry was nearby. Acts of Wizardry aren’t usually covered by standard policies, after all. Still, there were times that I had to wonder just how many buildings Harry had, intentionally or not, set on fire. Then there were times like this one, where I was more just wondering how the heck we were going to get out of it.

The fire had blazed to life all too quickly. I wasn’t sure whether that was a result of the magic from the golem’s destruction or whether the building just wasn’t up to code. Regardless, it didn’t matter. The building burned, and the crates of illegal fireworks were exposed.

Molly and I moved, still holding tightly onto the goblin. The best way out of the building was the way we got in, only instead of rolling under the metal doorway, when we were two feet away, we ducked down and slid like a baseball player stealing third base. We might have accidentally bumped the goblin’s head against the metal doorway, taking advantage of the metal there, but it definitely wasn’t on purpose. After sliding past the door, we kept going. Given the contents of the burning warehouse, it seemed prudent to put some distance between it and us as we heard the siren-like sound of the screamer fireworks igniting, combined with hearing them move through the warehouse. We were lucky. If we’d been in there much longer, it would only get progressively more dangerous. Who knew how much the building could support, and combined with the igniting of multiple explosive and incendiary devices, the building definitely was unsafe for young wizards-in-training. When we made it across the shipping lanes to where trucks would probably park their trailers were any of them here, we finally felt like we were at the minimum safe distance to turn around.

The building definitely burned, but the fire hadn’t quite made it to where it was visible from the outside yet, despite the explosions going on within. Maybe whatever fire protections the warehouse had would kick in, and there would be water raining down from the ceiling, enough that it could put out the flames, but we doubted it. We were certain that it wouldn’t be long before we heard the sound of sirens coming down the street. The nearest fire department was only a few minutes away, and it probably wouldn’t do to be in the vicinity when they got here. Luckily, there appeared to be an open gate not far from where we were, and we made our way through it, still carrying our prisoner. The gate led into an open lot not far from the building but barely visible from the street. A small service road passed between two of the apartment buildings that were behind the warehouse, leading to the street. Yes, this would be perfect for what we needed.

Harry would have to find his own way out, but we knew that he’d be fine, given the part of the building on fire. He probably had a fully clear way to get out of the building. He probably wasn’t going to be vaulting over any burning furniture, blasting out any walls with his magic, or really doing anything that put him into any danger _caused by the actions that he took_. No, we weren’t bitter. We wanted Harry to be fine. We didn’t want Harry to be singed at all from the fire he started. We didn’t want him to have any excuse for not coming to the barbecue after this. If Harry tried to weasel his way out, we’d just throw some pointed discussion his way about how our mother would want to know all about how we spent our afternoon. That would probably give us enough leverage to get him coming. Just because he had the coin didn’t mean he could use it as an excuse to avoid his friends. It wasn’t like Harry was actually using the thing, after all.

Standing in the still-bright sunlight, we looked back toward the building. Smoke wafted to our noses as the flames started to lick higher around it, and the sounds of launching fireworks and their explosions repeatedly assaulted our ears. The sounds of sirens would come soon, for certain, but if they were there, I couldn’t hear them over the sounds of the explosions. At that moment, I was thanking God that I had to focus in order to increase my sensory perception, something I had no intent on doing so long as those explosions kept going. Between Molly’s and my arms, our little green prisoner began squirming, reaching out with its claws, or at least attempting to, but we held him firm.

“Give hat back! Me am Sam! Me want hat! Sam’s hat me!” The goblin snarled out. “Give hat! Give hat!”

“Guess he thinks we really are that stupid,” Molly said, and I shrugged.

“Okay, _Sam_ ,” I didn’t really put will behind it this time, but I emphasized the Name he gave nonetheless. Clearly that wasn’t really his name, but maybe the hat acted as a mantle of sorts that appended that Name to his own. “You’re not getting the hat back. It’s going to its proper owner, _Uncle_ Sam.”

“That me! Me am Sam! Give hat back!” The goblin seemed to remember it had feet, and it kicked out at us, with suddenly bare feet. Molly moved out of the way in time, but I caught the tips of its toes right across my midriff and middle, tearing open the front of my dress. The goblin then seemed to notice the unlit rocket it held in its hand. “Sam trade? Sam give for hat?”

“Sam no get hat back,” Molly said and then scrunched up her face some. That hadn’t come out as she meant it, and I felt a sense of mirth coming from somewhere nearby. I found it a little less funny, but my sister continued. “I mean; you’re not getting the hat back. It doesn’t belong to you, and our boss was hired to find it for the person it does belong to.”

“Why are you explaining things to the goblin?” I looked over our prisoner to my sister, and she shrugged. As I’d moved my head, I noticed… a smudge against the background of a nearby building. It really didn’t matter much, as we had better things to worry about, but it was there.

“Give hat! Hat am Sam’s! Me am Sam! Me am hat!” This was going to get severely annoying very quickly. Still, for some reason it wasn’t really all that hard to hold still. Was this even a normal goblin? I mean; I thought that goblins were supposed to be members of the Wild Hunt or Winter Court foot soldiers, but this one, without the hat, seemed barely menacing at all. It honestly seemed more like an annoyance without it. “Give hat! Give hat back! Hat am Sam’s! Hat am Sam’s!”

“Lord, it’s like listening to one of Hope’s tantrums,” Molly said, locking eyes with me. She was right, of course. The goblin was like a kid that had its toys taken away. It genuinely seemed to believe that the hat belonged to it and that its name was Sam. Hell, maybe it was. “Think it can lie?”

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. Molly knew that the hat didn’t belong to the goblin, and whether it could lie or not, it still caused us some trouble. As the goblin continued its ranting and lashing out, clearly trying to get either the hat into its hands or to get us to drop it, Molly and I gathered our collective will. There was something that we could do that would stop this annoyance right here and now, and it didn’t actually involve killing the goblin. No, what it involved was rather simple, really, at least in theory. All we needed to do was instill an emotion in the little thing. Instill it hard enough or deep enough, and it would work fine. We focused our annoyance into the spell, and used something that we’d often wished in the past we could feasibly use on our younger siblings. “ _Neru_.”

Within seconds of us unleashing the energy, the goblin’s movements began to still. Once we confirmed that the goblin had started snoring, we lowered it to the ground, carefully, so as to not disturb it. Looking down at the goblin, we frowned. We needed to contain it better. Sleep alone wasn’t exactly something that would hold it forever, and until we got some final judgement on what to do, there was only one thing that we could think of. Using a bit of rock that we pulled off the ground and tested for markings it’d leave, we drew a rudimentary circle around the goblin and we carefully removed the unlit rocket from its hands. It took a simple effort of will and a slight bit of blood to snap the circle closed around the goblin, ensuring that it would stay within it. Given that this wasn’t something drawn by it, it should have been confined within when it woke. Looking upon our work, we nodded, satisfied with what we managed to accomplish. The goblin had no choice in the matter. It would be confined until we could figure out what to do with it.

Then we looked at each other, and I groaned. I might not have been one for fashion, but if my dress was anywhere close to the same shape as my sister’s, we’d both have to go home and change before going to the barbecue. Molly’s had been torn in several places, revealing the skin underneath, and the edges of her skirt were blackened. Looking down at my own, I could see it was much the same. This _sucked_. I actually liked this dress, and it was ruined.

“You did a good job, Grasshoppers,” Harry said, stepping up from where he had been veiling himself. I suspected that he’d been watching to see if he needed to step in, but I wasn’t sure how quickly he managed to get out of the warehouse. Given his tall legs, he probably ended up running all the way around and made it out while we were arguing with the goblin. How he managed to find where we were probably marked his skill at investigation. “Now, what did you think you were doing going in there?”

“You said not to go through _that_ door, Harry,” Molly said, and then she gestured to the hat in my hand. “Besides, we got the hat. You burned down the building.”

“And our clothes,” I added, and Harry looked away. For a second, I was afraid that Harry was going to do something more, but he breathed out a sigh.

“Fine. We’ll go over why you shouldn’t have done it later, but for now, good job,” Harry looked at the goblin. Honestly, he seemed to be looking anywhere but at us. We probably made him a little uncomfortable with the skin that we were showing. “Now, we need to get the hat back to our client.”

“Okay, how should we do that? None of us have a cell phone. Do we need to set off this firework and sing Yankee Doodle or something?” I asked, squeezing the hat slightly with my hand. It had power in it, certainly, but I was careful to not draw on any of the power. I didn’t want to suddenly think my name was Sam or something.

“Actually, I was going to use that payphone over on the corner,” Harry said. “I’d rather have him meet us out here than go all the way back to the office while restraining a goblin. You two…”

The midriff of my dress gave out at that moment, dropping the skirt down to rest on my hips, and I held it up with one hand. Luckily the separation wasn’t high enough that the entire thing separated, but this definitely was awkward.

“Erm…” Harry turned his body so he faced away from me. “You two, you can wait here. Keep an eye on the goblin. And the hat.”

“Okay, Harry,” Molly said as she moved to help me. Neither of us had our purses; we’d left them in the Blue Beetle, but Molly had a few things she could use to help pin my clothes up.

Together, we stood and watched the building fire, her arm around my waist while we waited. I leaned my head on my sister’s shoulder. Hopefully Harry would have the foresight to get something for me to cover up with.

I really didn’t want to have to wear Harry’s duster. It’d just look wrong.

  



	9. Chapter Nine

I’m honestly not sure how long Molly and I stood there, maintaining the circle around the goblin named Sam. We’d split our attention between the burning building, the firemen that were now putting out the building, and the goblin itself. The firemen seemed to be doing a good job of putting out the building; they’d end up saving the structure itself, even if the contents within were all ruined. Of course, given the number of fireworks containers that likely remained in that warehouse with two days until the Fourth, it was entirely possible that the fire took out whatever remaining stock the owner had illegally stored there. I really didn’t want to think about who might be the one doing the storage as ultimately it didn’t matter. The building was surviving. The fireworks had all exploded, and the sounds of which hadn’t even caused our prisoner to stir within the circle.

After all, the sleep spell that we cast still held strong. Neither Molly nor I really were certain whether the spell would work, but we got a little lucky. The trappings of Uncle Sam seemed to be fading from the goblin. The beard he’d had crumbled away to ectoplasmic goo, and his clothing had reverted to the leathers that I’d first spotted him in. I almost felt bad for him. I didn’t know how he managed to acquire the hat. Maybe the goblin stole it. Maybe he found it. Ultimately it didn’t really matter how the goblin had acquired it though, just that he had. It also mattered that we managed to retrieve the hat, and we intended on getting it back to Uncle Sam as soon as he managed to get to us.

Molly hip-checked me when she noticed where my attention was. Maybe I’d been focusing too much on the goblin, but I just had no answers to the questions that dwelt within my mind. _What’s eating at you?_

_This didn’t happen in my memories,_ I sent to my sister. Mentioning my memories of a past life out loud in a public area didn’t seem like it would have been the brightest thing to do. Especially when it was entirely possible that the goblin would wake up.

_Well, you don’t have a perfect memory._ Molly squeezed my waist, and I leaned on her a little more. _Maybe this or something like it did happen and you can’t remember._

I shrugged. Molly, as per usual, tended to have a point. Regardless of whether something like this happened in what I remembered or not, it happened now. Today had been a novel experience, and it was something that despite everything, I enjoyed. I could even use the words magical for it. I could, but that’d be really cheesy.

We didn’t really have to wait much longer before Harry came back to the lot. His long legs and runner’s build meant that Harry could move swiftly when he wanted to, and it also meant that he tended to walk faster than the average person. That he took as much time as he did likely meant that he had been a while on the phone, waiting for Uncle Sam to pick up.

Sure enough, Harry wasn’t alone while returning to the lot. Uncle Sam followed him, his starry eyes gleaming in the sunlight overhead. I still held the hat with my free hand; I didn’t exactly trust it to stay in place if I were to put it somewhere on the ground. I didn’t want the hat to somehow get attracted to our goblin prisoner.

As I looked over the approaching men, I frowned. Neither one of them had any bags whatsoever with them, and I doubted either of them carried a safety pin, which I could have used to keep everything held up, if not together.

“There they are, just like I told you,” Harry said, gesturing at my sister and I. “Along with the being that had your hat.”

“Good job, Mister Dresden, to you and your apprentices.” Uncle Sam approached the two of us. “I see your reputation is accurate. You hunted down my hat admirably.”

“Well, I try,” Harry said, glancing at each of us.

Something occurred to me at that point, and I frowned. Something about what Uncle Sam had said at the beginning, when he’d hired us. He wanted us to “find [the] top hat, before it’s too late.” We found the top hat, but we never got an elaboration on the why beyond that he lost it somehow. Then, I looked at the goblin in the circle, and back to Uncle Sam, and it clicked.

“Too late,” I said. “You wanted us to find it before the mantle passed to someone else. Before you were no longer Uncle Sam.”

“Well done, Miss Carpenter,” Uncle Sam said, and then he glanced at the goblin. A frown played itself on his face. “I had hoped that I simply lost the hat rather than have it stolen, but I am happy for its safe return.”

I still held the hat. This had been what we were paid to do, but something caused me to hesitate. I wasn’t entirely certain what it was, but something about the hat and the man in front of me just gave me pause. I felt like maybe the hat shouldn’t be going to him. Maybe I should have held the hat a little more.

“My hat, if you please,” Uncle Sam held out his hand, and I gave a little grimace. The hat _was_ his, after all, but I almost didn’t want to hand it over at all. I didn’t need to give it over. I just had to… I just needed to…

“Faith.” Harry’s voice contained a tone of warning, and I blinked.

God, what was I thinking? I released the power I had been gathering and I offered the hat to Uncle Sam. “Here… sorry about that.”

“It’s no trouble, Miss Carpenter.” Uncle Sam wrapped his fingers around the brim of the hat, and I blinked. For a second, he looked different as I released my hold on the hat. He seemed more muscular, athletic, with a sense of savagery about him. As he dipped his head down to place the hat upon it, his face became obscured in a veil of darkness. Not a single feature of his face could be made out save for a pair of burning red eyes, shining like the flames of a torch. Then, he raised his head, and his features were of the older man I’d seen before. The simmering bits of power seemed to have calmed, and I needed to focus to be able to tell the man before me was anything other than a human. “Thank you, the three of you.”

“You’re welcome,” Molly and I said in unison, bowing our heads slightly. I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d seen, but it didn’t hurt to be polite. I inclined my head toward our goblin prisoner, and I frowned. “Now, what about him?”

Uncle Sam stretched slightly. “Ah yes… _him_. I must apologize to the three of you. Like I had said, I did not believe that the hat had been stolen. Not by that little one there, at least.”

The embodiment of American patriotism made his way to the edge of our circle, and he peered within. “Samuel, wake up.”

Wait, his name actually _was_ Sam? I didn’t know if goblins could lie or not. Were they subject to the same truth telling nature that the Sidhe had? I either couldn’t remember or I didn’t out right know. I’d need to ask Bob about it when I got the chance.

The goblin stirred within the circle, opening his eyes. He looked up at Uncle Sam, complete with hat on. “Ah! Give hat! Give hat!”

“Samuel,” Uncle Sam said, shaking his head. His tone of voice very much reminded me of the one Daddy would take on when he was disappointed in something that we did. It was almost like he was chastising a child. “This hat is _mine_. We established that before, and Mister Dresden and his apprentices established that again today.”

“But hat am… Me am…” The goblin shook its head, and I swear I saw tears coming out of its eyes.

“If you’re going to be among humans, Samuel, you can’t take my hat.” Uncle Sam glanced over at my sister and I. “Would the two of you mind opening this circle? Samuel will behave. _Won’t you?_ ”

The goblin suddenly stood up straight. “Am good! Me am very good!”

We started to move, but we stopped when Harry held up his hand.

“I’ll do it. You two stay back.” Harry reached into his duster and pulled out his blasting rod, aiming it at the goblin. The tip of it lit up a bright red, like that of an acetylene torch. “If you don’t behave, we’ll see how fast you still are. Got it?”

The goblin nodded so fast that it looked like its head would come off, and Harry smirked, seemingly ignoring the annoyed yet bemused expression on Uncle Sam’s face. Harry reached out with his foot and smudged the circle, causing it to open and release our prisoner. The moment the circle went down, the goblin ran forward and wrapped its arms around Uncle Sam’s leg.

“Me sorry!” I blinked. Wait. That couldn’t be right. The goblin’s face started to warp, becoming more human and childlike. A head of short, curly brown hair formed on its head and its skin began to turn pink. It remained at around the same height, but he… he appeared human. He did still have a rather nasty looking welt on the back of his head, but as the hair grew in, it became less obvious.

“I will have to talk to your keepers when we get home,” Uncle Sam said, running a hand through the former goblin’s hair. “But you can spend the rest of the holiday with me.”

“Yay! ‘Murica!” His voice hadn’t changed much, maybe become less annoyingly high pitched and more childlike, but not much of a change. It was then that I had a dawning realization. The goblin was a kid. No wonder he’d been shorter than expected. He was _young_. The kid appeared to be about Hope’s age. Maybe a little older. His eyes still were goblinoid when looking at the pupils, but he looked human otherwise.

“… Did your hat get stolen by your kid?” Molly asked before I could.

“It’s… a little more complicated than that, Miss Carpenter, but Samuel is mine,” Uncle Sam said, and then he turned to us. “I thank you for not slaying him out of hand. It would have been disappointing to find that he had died.”

Harry put his blasting rod away. “Well, uh. You’re welcome, I guess. He wasn’t really that much a little monster.”

“He did, however, destroy our clothes,” Molly said, and I nodded. “Mine are fine enough to wear out, but Fai’s practically falling out of hers. Harry, why didn’t you grab something?”

“I didn’t think to,” Harry said, and then he started to remove his duster. “Here, you can wear this until we can get you some new clothes, Grasshopper.”

“Ah… no need,” Uncle Sam said. “I hired Mr. Dresden, and I suspect that replacing your clothing would be a part of the expenses. As such, let me alleviate that expense some.”

He clapped his hands twice and whistled a few bars of… what sounded like “America the Beautiful.” A gust of wind blew… and in the blink of an eye, I felt a weight on me that was different than before. Where the two of us had been wearing red and white summer dresses before, we now wore what could only be described as patriotic American Flag dresses. The dresses were backless, had striped skirts and the upper part of the dress had the blue with white stars. The straps of the dress wrapped around the backs of our necks, and we still remained in flats.

“There. Now don’t the two of you look beautiful?” Uncle Sam asked, and the former goblin, Samuel smiled from his position down below.

“Me like! Hot chicks! Explosions! ‘Murica! Yay!”

I resisted the urge to rub the bridge of my nose, but a smile came to my lips. “Thank you, Uncle Sam.”

“No, thank you. Now then, I believe that you three had a barbecue to get to. Go on.” The spirit of American patriotism seemed to shoo us, and we found ourselves walking. We left him in the lot with the goblin that supposedly was his kid, as we really did have a barbecue to get to, and we’d finished the case.

I was looking forward to the food and family time now that the case was done. Hopefully nothing too embarrassing would happen while we were all there.

Why did it still weird me out that Uncle Sam had a goblin kid?

  



	10. Chapter Ten

While it had taken us some time to find the warehouse, we hadn’t really actually gone all that far from the barbecue, maybe only a couple miles. We’d also been walking in a less-than-ideal path to get to our destination. It took us maybe half an hour to walk from the lot behind the warehouse to the cross street that had St. Mary’s on the other side, and I swear we smelled the barbecue long before we could even see the belfries of the church. The combined scents of succulent baby back ribs, juicy hamburgers, and, yes, properly cooked hot dogs wafted down the streets, drawing us in as we walked closer. When we had been there before, the food had been cooking, sure, but now it had the chance to be fragrant, carrying on the breeze. My mouth watered at the thought of the food that was going to be available to us. I might not have been as much of a foodie in this life as in my last one, but I still enjoyed a well-cooked meal. One of the things Daddy did was help with the cooking here, and I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into anything and everything that was going to be available. As we waited at a crosswalk, a loud gurgling sound came from my sister’s and my stomachs simultaneously.

I let out a small giggle at that. Neither Molly nor I had eaten much since breakfast, wanting to save our appetites for the barbecue. The only reason we even got the milkshakes in the first place was because the day promised to be a hot one.

“I told the two of you that you should have eaten something at Burger King,” Harry said. “But did you listen? No.”

“You didn’t tell us anything like that,” Molly said, placing a hand on her hip. “Besides, there’s a barbecue. Right over there. That you’re invited to. So don’t try to weasel out.”

“And you better go find Daddy when we get in, Harry. He’d probably like to talk to you.” I smiled at our mentor as the signal shifted. The three of us crossed the street, but as we passed under the crossing signal, I winced as I heard the bulbs short out. Guess the combined aura of the three of us was enough to mess with the older electronics, or it burned out on its own and was just rotten timing. Either way, I still winced, but I continued once we were past it. “I don’t think the two of you have talked much since February.”

“All right, kid,” Harry said with a smile. “I’ll go talk to your dad, and I’ll stay for the barbecue. The two of you did good today.”

Molly and I gave each other a not-so-surreptitious high five, and Harry shook his head. We looked at him, and we grinned simultaneously, cocking our heads to the side. “Thank you, Harry.”

“You’re welcome. Now, let’s go get this party started.” Harry gestured at the barbecue as we approached its edge. “Have some fun, you two. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

I chose not to reply, as I really didn’t want to bring up something that could have been hurtful here. Molly followed my lead, and the two of us smiled at Harry before making our way into the crowd of people. If anything, the barbecue seemed a little more crowded than before, but Molly and I had a target in mind. We needed to make a beeline for the food. Hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs, whatever… We’d get our fill and grab a table. Or a spot at one, either or.

We had been so focused on the food table that we almost didn’t notice until too late as we nearly bumped into someone.

“Hey! Watch where you’re—Faith, Molly?” Mattie. We’d almost bumped into our little brother. A smile came to his face and he gave each of us a one-handed hug. In his other hand, he held a well-topped hot dog that he kept a decent distance away from the dress. “Finally! Mom and Dad were wondering when the two of you would get here. Danny said that you two weren’t coming, but I said you were. Mister Dresden wasn’t going to keep the two of you forever.”

We smiled and ruffled his hair. “We actually managed to get Harry to show up to this thing. He and Daddy will get to have that talk that they’ve been putting off.”

Mattie looked between the two of us. “You’re doing it again, Faith and Molly. Why are you doing it again?”

“Hungry, actually,” we said, glancing past our brother toward the food. “Sorry, it’s… we’ll stop if you want.”

“Well, we can get some food,” Mattie said, being oddly helpful. “It’s just this way.”

We narrowed our eyes. Well, there were a few reasons that our brother would be trying to be helpful in this way. Of course, we’d be pretty poor older sisters if we let him get away with it this easily. “You’re trying to get rid of us.”

“What? No, I’m not. The food’s this way.” Mattie gestured, but then he glanced back behind us, and we half-turned, following his gaze. Oh, so _that’s_ what he was looking at. Suddenly it all made sense.

“She’s cute, Mattie,” I said as we mutually decided splitting the conversation here would ensure the best results.

“What’s her name?” Molly asked. The girl in question looked to be about our brother’s age, about eleven or so, and her hair was a dark red. She wore a pair of thigh-length shorts and a blue tank top. She held a cup in one hand and was placing a burger on a picnic table with the other.

“Jenny…” Mattie said in wonder before shaking his head. “Food’s over there… Go on.”

“Okay, okay,” I said. “We’ll just be—”

“—on our way. Have fun with Jenny, Matthew.” Molly said, and the two of us gave him a kiss on his cheeks in a fluid motion before moving toward the food. We weren’t going to be around to embarrass him in front of his new friend. Besides, the two of us really were hungry. When we got to the food table, we each grabbed a plate and started loading up on the foods we wanted and napkins. We needed plenty of napkins.

After gathering up enough food to feed all the hungry in China, we made our way to a table and sat in unison to eat. Given how hungry we were, we ate swiftly, giving only the most casual regard for our neatness. Luckily, most of the foods we grabbed wouldn’t have anything fall out and onto our nice new dresses, and those that did, we chose to be extra careful with.

As we were finishing up our last bite, a familiar person slid onto the seat between Molly and I, bringing a smile to my face. She managed to find us pretty easily, but then again, we were a pair of tall identical twins wearing identical patriotic dresses in this crowd. If she was looking hard, she’d be able to find us. Becca snaked an arm around my back and I returned the favor.

“Faith, Molly, you two here to stay now?” Becca asked. “Or are you just stopping for food?”

“We’re staying,” Molly said.

“Finished up the job that we were doing,” I continued. “We’ll be here till the end.”

“I’m glad,” Becca said. “As fun as this is, it’ll be more fun with you here.”

Molly looked at Becca and I, a smile playing on her face, followed quickly by a frown. “Crap, I just realized…”

“What?” Becca turned toward Molly, and then she noticed what was on the table next to her plate. Heck, I noticed it too. I couldn’t believe that Molly still had that with her. “Wait, is that a—”

“Rocket or missile firework, yeah,” Molly said, cutting Becca off.

“How’d you get it? I never thought your dad would be doing anything about getting that sort of thing…”

“It’s a bit of a long story,” I said, glancing at the rocket. “We should do something about it.”

“Don’t worry, Fai. I’ll handle it,” Molly said, standing up, but Becca and I stood as well. “No. I forgot I was carrying it. I’ll deal with it, Fai. You two hang out for a bit.”

“If you’re sure,” I said a little uneasily. I really didn’t want Molly getting in trouble for any sort of accident that I should have remembered too.

“She’s sure, Fai.” Becca wrapped her arm around me again. “I know that face of hers. Pity that we won’t get to light it.”

Molly shrugged. “Maybe if we weren’t at a church barbecue. I’ll bring it somewhere safe. You two enjoy yourselves.”

Becca nodded, and I did as well. Molly scooped up the cartoonishly large rocket and slipped it into her dress. If I hadn’t known it was there and specifically looked for it, I wouldn’t have even been able to tell that she’d had it. My sister gave a grin and she headed off into the crowd. If I were to judge at the time, she probably had been headed toward Harry’s general direction.

“So,” Becca said, her arm still wrapped around my waist.

“So,” I returned. “What now?”

“Well, I did see a more or less private area...” Becca said, and I smiled. My older girlfriend pulled me along and she led me near the shed we’d been at that morning. People mostly seemed to be gathered near the tents that we’d set up and the tables and games that were near them. We happened to be in a nearly perfect area that was blocked from view of most of the grounds.

“Well, you have me all alone now…” I said, my voice taking on what I felt was an intentionally husky tone.

“Mm-hmm,” Becca said, and she cupped my chin, pulling me down to her height. Now, this was something that I hadn’t really considered doing near the church at all, but I can’t say that I wasn’t happy about the situation. Becca certainly was. The two of us enjoyed our private time together in ways that probably were inappropriate for the area we were in, but we definitely enjoyed it. The Church would come around eventually, and the day was special anyway. Honestly, I was probably more likely to get in trouble due to my magic than with what Becca and I were do—

“Mo-Faith?” A younger voice coming from a person clearly confused asked. “Oh, eww…”

I pulled away from Becca and looked at the source of the voice. My sister, Alicia, stood not far, near a soccer ball that had somehow ended up back behind the shed. Her glasses were a little smudged from her play, but that didn’t mean she didn’t just see what Becca and I were doing.

“Alicia, this uh…” I looked down at Becca and where her hands were… and where my hands were.

Becca smiled up at me and gave a squeeze before turning her head toward my sister. “Hi there.”

“You two were…” Alicia shook her head, but then she took a good look at me. “Faith. Why were you kissing her?”

“Uh…” How was I supposed to answer my seven-year-old sister here? She might read on a seventh or eighth grade level, but this was the early 2000s. That sort of literature didn’t really cover my current situation much yet. “I like her…”

“Huh.” Alicia blinked. “So girls can like girls too?”

“Yeah, they can, sweetie,” Becca said. “And I like your sister.”

Alicia came over and hugged me, something that surprised me a little as she was usually a little more withdrawn. Maybe it had something to do with the soccer game she was playing earlier. “I like her too. She and Molly lend me books.”

“Yeah, and I’ve got a few new ones to recommend to you if you’re done with those last ones, sis.” I ruffled my sister’s hair and gave a slightly apologetic look to Becca. “So, what brought you back here? The ball?”

“Yeah. Sarah Mitchell kicked it too hard and I volunteered to come get it.”

“But then you saw us,” I said with a knowing smile. “Sorry for interrupting your game.”

“I’m glad you’re here, Faith.” Alicia smiled up at me, her dark bangs framing her face in a cute way.

“Yeah, me too. Score a goal for me, will you?”

“One for me too, sweetie.” Becca untangled herself from me. The two of us walked over with my sister after she retrieved the soccer ball and we watched her play a bit. As I’d noted earlier in the day, Alicia had been damn good. It wasn’t long before the rest of my family ended up joining Becca and I on the sidelines, each of us cheering for Alicia and her team as they went along.

Harry and Daddy were having a pleasant conversation with each other, clearly enjoying their company, and I was pretty sure that not a single word out of either of their mouths had to do with work. Well, other than maybe Uncle Sam. That had been a weird enough experience that it was worth sharing with those in the know, but obviously we couldn’t go into any huge detail in the middle of the barbecue.

Later that evening, after the sun had gone down, most everyone had managed to find a seat somewhere. Molly and I sat together with our friends and family. Becca sat to the left of me, Molly to my right. Drew sat behind me, near his folks, while Mom and Daddy sat near Harry with Hope and my younger brother Harry near them. All of my other younger siblings were seated nearby, and we were all sorts of ready for what was coming.

The fireworks display that the barbecue committee had arranged was a testament to the professionalism of those hired. The show was beautiful and fun, and it lasted about thirty-five minutes in all. It was one thing to see and hear fireworks exploding within a warehouse, and it was a different thing entirely to watch the show done in person. This was how they were meant to be used. Having them explode in the warehouse had seemed to be such a waste.

Around the time the fireworks show ended was when the people gathered for the barbecue started to retreat toward their homes. Mom loaded up the jawas into the minivan and took them home, leaving Molly, Daddy and I at the barbecue alongside Harry. Becca’d had to go home with her mom, but she’d promised to contact me after the holiday was over.

While we were supposed to help with the cleanup, Harry had gestured for us to come over to him, and we did so.

“All right, Grasshoppers. You did good today, and we all had a little bit of fun. But there’s one thing that I’d like you to try before I say the lesson is over for the day.” Harry reached into his duster and pulled out the rocket Molly had had earlier, planting its stick into the ground.

We understood what he wanted immediately, but we looked to Daddy, given that the rocket was obviously illegal.

“Go ahead, girls,” Daddy said. “I’d like to see this.”

Oh good. No pressure.

We drew the circle around us in the dirt, and we snapped it closed. Focusing our combined will, we knew what we needed to do, what we needed to have done, and we knew that this spell would be possible to accomplish without having to use something that would focus it. All we needed to do was focus properly, and we’d be able to get this done.

We each stretched out a hand at the rocket, letting the buildup of will and power do its thing. We focused the anger and annoyance we felt, compressing it. We broke the circle, grinning and we released our spell. “ _Infiernius_! _”_

Well, what do you know? The fire worked.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was Fire Work. Bit lighthearted and fun, and it shows that more happens with the twins.


End file.
